Early paternal smoking linked to age acceleration in daughters

“For clinicians, this could mean they can use these results to strengthen prevention strategies, not only to protect the health of young people today, but possibly to reduce the risk of accelerated aging and future disease in their children,” he said.

Using data from the Respiratory Health in Northern Europe, Spain and Australia (RHINESSA) and the Respiratory Health in Northern Europe (RHINE)/European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) studies, Lόpez-Cervantes and colleagues evaluated 415 offspring (aged 7 to 50 years) with information on the age their fathers started smoking tobacco to determine the impact of paternal smoking during puberty on epigenetic age acceleration in their offspring.

The RHINESSA study housed offspring blood DNA methylation data, which were linked to parent data in RHINE/ECRHS, according to the poster.

In addition to DNA methylation, researchers utilized GrimAge, PhenoAge and DunedinPACE epigenetic clocks to find epigenetic age. The difference between this age and chronological age yielded epigenetic age acceleration.

The poster highlighted that 16.1% of fathers began smoking before or at age 15 years (in puberty), and 44.3% began smoking after age 15 years. The remaining 39.5% of fathers reported never smoking.

In a mixed-effect linear regression adjusted for offspring chronological age and grandparental education, researchers observed more accelerated age among daughters of fathers who began smoking during vs. after puberty on all three epigenetic clocks.

“Based on our earlier work, we were not surprised to see striking differences depending on whether smoking started before or after puberty, nor when looking at the important role of the fathers in these associations,” Lόpez-Cervantes said.

In the subgroup of sons, those with fathers who began smoking during vs. after puberty had similar or lower accelerated age, according to the poster.

Researchers noted the same trends as above in a sensitivity analysis of offspring who reported never smoking. Additionally, in an analysis of 477 offspring with information on the age their mothers started smoking, maternal smoking during puberty was not linked to age acceleration in offspring.

“I believe future studies should look more closely at the different chemical and environmental exposures that occur during puberty in future parents,” Lόpez-Cervantes told Healio. “Whatever happens during this critical life period may shape disease risks not only for individuals, but also for their children.”

For more information:

Juan Pablo Lόpez-Cervantes can be reached at juan.cervantes@uib.no.