Weight affects knees and the information in sperm

Sperm carries information about dad’s weight

It turns out dads are also eating for two. A new study published in the journal Cell Metabolism reveals that a man’s weight affects the heritable information contained in sperm. The sperm cells of lean and obese men possess different epigenetic marks, notable at gene regions associated with the control of appetite. The comparisons, which included 13 lean men and 10 obese men, offer one biological explanation for why children of obese fathers are themselves more predisposed to obesity.

In the next phase of the study, the investigators tracked six men undergoing weight-loss surgery to see how it affected their sperm. An average of 5,000 structural changes to sperm cell DNA were observed from the time before the surgery, directly after, and one year later. “Our research could lead to changing behaviour, particularly pre-conception behaviour of the father,” says senior author Romain Barrès, an Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen. “It’s common knowledge that when a woman is pregnant she should take care of herself – not drink alcohol, stay away from pollutants, etc – but if the implication of our study holds true, then recommendations should be directed towards men, too.”

MRI reveals weight loss protects knees

Obese people who lose a substantial amount of weight can significantly slow the degeneration of their knee cartilage, according to a new study. Ageing baby boomers and a rise in obesity have contributed to an increased prevalence of knee osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease. The study’s lead author, Dr Alexandra Gersing, from the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at the University of California, San Francisco and colleagues recently investigated the association between different degrees of weight loss and the progression of knee cartilage degeneration in 506 overweight and obese patients who either had mild to moderate osteoarthritis or risk factors for the disease. When the researchers used MRI to analyse the differences in the quality of cartilage among the three groups over a four-year time span, they found evidence that weight loss has a protective effect against cartilage degeneration and that a larger amount of weight loss is more beneficial. “Cartilage degenerated a lot slower in the group that lost more than 10 per cent of their body weight, especially in the weight-bearing regions of the knee,” Gersing says. “However, those with 5 to 10 per cent weight loss had almost no difference in cartilage degeneration compared to those who didn’t lose weight.”