Did you know that deficiency of vitamin B12, B9 and methionine before pregnancy causes health-related disorders in adult offspring?

Lina Rustanti
41917286

Many studies suggest that mothers’ diet during pregnancy will influence their children’s health. However, little is known about the effect of specific nutrients on the timing of prior to pregnancy and around the time of conception.
A recent research proves that specific nutritional supplements exposure during periconceptional period leads to changes of genome associated with clinical phenotypes in offspring. Reduction of vitamin B12, B9 (folate) and methionine to the diet of adult female sheep from 8 weeks preceeding until 6 days after conception reveals epigenetics modification to DNA methylation in the embryo. Folate and vitamin B12 are essential contributors for DNA methylation. DNA methylation is one of several epigenetics mechanisms that play a role in gene silencing during embryogenesis. Aberrant DNA methylation is associated with the pathogenesis of several diseases.
The experiment was conducted by giving vitamin B12, folate and methionine to both treatment and control groups. Compared to the control group, the treatment group was reduced in the methionine diet. Inadequate methionine diet causes deficiency of vitamin B12 and folate in blood plasma. This leads to DNA hypomethylation and causes the increase of adiposity, insulin resistance, altered immune responses and elevated blood pressure in adult offspring. Interestingly, these health-related disorders are mainly found in males. This research provides the requirement of nutritional advice to intending mothers for improvement of their children’s long-term health.