Medizinische Universität Graz Austria/Österreich - Forschungsportal - Medical University of Graz
Gewählte Publikation:
Gruber, S.
Effect of in utero exposure to cigarette smoke on DNA- methylation in foetus and offspring
Humanmedizin; [ Diplomarbeit ] Medizinische Universität Graz; 2022. pp. 64
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- Autor*innen der Med Uni Graz:
- Betreuer*innen:
- Hiden Ursula
- Altmetrics:
- Abstract:
- Background Smoking in general and particular during pregnancy is a worldwide problem that, despite of knowledge about its adverse consequences, is not declining in prevalence. Smoking has many well-known and well-studied negative effects on cells and triggers DNA mutations. There are also epigenetic changes that are induced by smoking, and smoking in pregnancy can induce epigenetic changes in the fetus which can affect the offspring’s health in long-term. Particularly changes in DNA methylation have been investigated and have been shown to serve as good biomarkers. Maternal smoking is associated with many negative consequences for the offspring, including an increased risk to develop asthma, obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer later in life. The aim of this thesis is to provide an overview of current research in the area of maternal smoking-associated changes in offspring. Methods The online database PubMed was used to research the current literature. Only studies performed in human were used. For this thesis, a total of 127 publications published between 2010 and 2021 were included. In this diploma thesis, the correlations were described, compiled and listed according to the different effects and clinical pictures. Results Maternal smoking has been shown to be detrimental to development in utero. Epigenetic changes could be detected in the umbilical cord blood of newborns as well as in various tissue samples, for example the placenta and the lungs. Some of these changes could even be detected over a longer period of time, i.e. years after birth, which illustrates the long-term effect of exposure to cigarette smoke in utero. Discussion Smoking not only has negative effects on the intra uterine development and later life of the offspring. Therefore, a healthy lifestyle and the absence of smoking, especially during pregnancy, is particularly desirable and should be more actively promoted and supported in order to carry out primary prevention and to reduce the risk of disease development in the unborn child.