A new study about alcohol suggests that sons of heavy drinkers are less likely to consume liquor and are more sensitive to its effects.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine conducted tests on male mice. The rodents were chronically exposed to alcohol before breeding. They had male offspring that were less likely to consume alcohol and were more responsive to its effects.
Past studies have shown that drinking among children is influenced by their parents. But to date only a few gene variants have been associated with Alcohol Use Disorder and they account for only a small fraction of the risk of inheriting the problem, said senior investigator Gregg E Homanics, professor of anesthesiology and pharmacology & chemical biology, Pitt School of Medicine.
"We examined whether a father's exposure to alcohol could alter expression of the genes he passed down to his children," Homanics said in a press release.
He said that instead of mutation of the genetic sequence, environmental factors are also responsible for modifying the activity of a gene, which is called epigenetics. "Our mouse study shows that it is possible for alcohol to modify the dad's otherwise normal genes and influence consumption in his sons, but surprisingly not his daughters," Homanics said.
The research team chronically exposed male mice for five weeks to alternating ethanol vapor leading to blood alcohol levels slightly higher than the legal limit for human drivers. The mice then mated with female mice who were exposed to alcohol.
The study results showed that adult male offspring of mice who were exposed to alcohol consumed less alcohol when it was made available and were less likely to choose to drink it over water. Also, they were more susceptible to alcohol effects on motor control and reduction of anxiety.
"We suspected that the offspring of alcohol exposed sires would have an enhanced taste for alcohol, which seems to be the pattern for humans," lead author Andrey Finegersh Finegersh said. Whether the unexpected reduction in alcohol drinking that was observed is due to differences between species or the specific drinking model that was tested is unclear," he said.
The findings were published in the journal 'PLOS ONE'.
