这里是丁香园「医周一句 · Clinical Pearls」栏目的第 42 期。今天我们来聊聊焦虑情绪遗传的话题。
说到遗传,我们可能最先想到的是各种生理性的遗传疾病,可是你是否知道,原来父亲的焦虑情绪也有可能传递给后代,同样的焦虑症状?
最近,医学杂志 Translational Psychiatry 就发表了一篇文章提到这一有趣的观点,让我们来看看原文是如何描述的:
In this study of Caucasian men, an inverse association was found between a measure of exposure to abusive and/or dysfunctional family behavior and sperm levels of multiplemembers of the miR-449/34 family.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) questionnaire used in this study is designed to capture stressful events occurring ~20 years earlier during one’s childhood.
Almost all of the men with high ACE scores in our study displayed reduced levels of these miRNAs.
It is known that children of parents who report high ACE scores are at higher risk for stress-associated behavioral problems, which has been assumed to be due to parental behaviors.
This study raises the possibility that another component isstress-induced miRNA changes in men’s sperm.
在这项研究中,该研究团队为男性受试者进行了一项叫做「不良童年经历」(Adverse Childhood Experiences, ACE)的问卷调查,并对他们的精液进行了基因分析。
如果 ACE 分数越高,表明童年受到的来自身体、语言、甚至是性虐待方面的创伤更严重,更容易引起焦虑等不良情绪。而这种不良情绪,竟会改变他们的精子 microRNA 水平,并有可能遗传给下一代。
该研究表明,相比于 ACE 评分低的受试者,分数高的人精子 miRNA-449 及 miRNA-34 的表达量降低了 300 倍之多。
而已有研究证实,miRNA的表达会通过精子遗传给下一代。也就是说,如果父亲童年有过不良童年经历并产生较大的焦虑情绪,会导致精子 miRNA-449 及 34 表达含量降低,并增加未来几代人发生压力相关性疾病的风险。
而对于我们医生来说,如果能够通过精子 miRNA 水平较早检测到异常表达,则可以及时进行预防干预童年创伤导致的许多疾病,减少相关疾病的发生风险,从这一点来看,不知道这算好事还是坏事呢。(责编:shamouer)
参考文献:
David A. Dickson,Jessica K. Paulus, Virginia Mensah,et al. Reduced levels of miRNAs 449 and 34in sperm of mice and men exposed to early life stress[J]. TranslationalPsychiatry. 2018
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