Obese Male Mice Father Offspring With Higher Levels of Body Fat (its not only mums epigenetics that matter!?)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130616155202.htm

To conduct the study, the researchers fed male mice a high-fat diet for 13 weeks before mating. (The female mates were fed a matched low-fat diet.) Male and female offspring were fed a standard low-fat diet and studied at 20 days, six weeks and at six and 12 months. [ to me this suggests that the effects are solely transmited by the male, and probably reflect epigenetic change in either choice of gene transfer (heresy I hear you cry!), or aspects of gene expression. The fact that it is from the male father is what makes things of interest. So its not just mum's health before and during pregnancy and breast feeding that is key, but also likely the father's state of health... (even if it turns out to be less so?)

Compared with offspring from control mice (who were fed the low-fat diet), the male offspring of paternal mice with diet-induced obesity had higher body weight at six weeks of age. They also were more obese at the six- and 12-month study markers. In addition, the male offspring of obese fathers had different patterns of body fat composition -- a marker for health and propensity for disease -- than the control mice.

The researchers were surprised, however, to find that the offspring of the obese paternal mice also were more physically active. At six weeks, the male offspring voluntarily ran more, and their female siblings demonstrated the same behavior at six and 12 months, the scientists report. Nowak's team is studying possible causes for this behavior, which might offset the increased body fat and reduce the offspring's risk of metabolic disease such as diabetes and heart disease.