Obesity leaves traces in children's DNA beyond genetics itself.

Certain chemical changes in DNA, known as methylation and related to the regulation of gene activity, allow us to distinguish between those who improve, worsen, or maintain stable insulin resistance during puberty.

A study reveals that obesity leaves traces in children's DNA beyond genetics itself. The work is part of the European EprObes project on childhood obesity prevention—led by the Biomedical Research Networking Center (CIBER)—and funded by the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) through the EXOMAIR project. The study was co-led by the University of Granada (UGR), in collaboration with the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a center supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation.

The results show that certain chemical changes in DNA, known as methylation and related to the regulation of gene activity, They allow us to distinguish between those who improve, worsen, or maintain stable insulin resistance during puberty.

The work, published in Cardiovascular Diabetology, identify 120 epigenetic regions associated with different trajectories of insulin resistance in children with obesity. It also shows that many of these signals do not appear to depend solely on inherited genetic variants, but could be influenced by environmental factors, lifestyle, or the metabolic state associated with long-term obesity.

" Insulin Resistance At a young age, it increases the future risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Understanding how these epigenetic signals evolve during puberty can help identify children at higher metabolic risk early on., explain the coordinators of the study Concepción M. Aguilera García, from the area of ​​Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition of CIBER (CIBEROBN), the Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology “José Mataix” of the University of Granada and ibs.GRANADA; Jesús Alcalá-Fdez, from the Andalusian Interuniversity Institute in Data Science and Computational Intelligence (DaSCI) and ibs.GRANADA; and Augusto Anguita, from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal).

Study development

Clinical groups from various health research institutes also participated in the study, including those led by Rosaura Leis from the Santiago Health Research Institute (IDIS), Gloria Bueno from the Aragon Health Research Institute (IIS Aragón), and Mercedes Gil-Campos from the Maimonides Institute for Biomedical Research in Cordoba (IMIBIC), who were responsible for recruitment and Clinical follow-up of 90 children with blood samples collected before and during pubertyThe study expanded to include up to 129 participants in some cross-sectional analyses. The research team combined high-resolution genetic and epigenetic analyses to track how these signals evolved from prepuberty to adolescence.

The findings reinforce the link between environment, obesity, and metabolic health from an early age and represent a step forward in precision medicine strategies aimed at detecting cardiometabolic risk early and intervening before more serious metabolic disorders develop. In this regard, the results could contribute in the future to the development of early biomarkers and the design of more personalized preventive interventions for diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Source: Daily Health