Research has shown that a mother’s lifestyle and age affects her offspring, but now science is concluding what common sense has held true— the father can also contribute to the health status of children.

研究已经表明，母亲的生活方式和年龄会影响其后代。但是现在，科学证实了另一个常识的正确性——父亲也会影响孩子的健康状况。

“We know the nutritional¹, hormonal² and psychological environment provided by the mother permanently³ alters organ structure, cellular⁴ response and gene expression in her offspring,” senior study investigator⁵ Joanna Kitlinska, an associate professor in biochemistry, and molecular⁶ and cellular biology at Georgetown University Medical Center, said in a news release.

“我们知道，母亲怀孕期间的营养、激素和心情会改变孩子的器官结构、细胞反应和基因表达，”美国乔治城大学医学中心生物化学与分子细胞生物学副教授、资深研究员Joanna Kitlinska在新闻发布会上说道。

“But our study shows the same thing to be true with fathers — his lifestyle, and how old he is, can be reflected in molecules⁷ that control gene function,” Kitlinska said. “In this way, a father can affect not only his immediate⁸ offspring, but future generations as well.”

“但是我们的研究表明父亲也会对孩子产生相同的影响——父亲的生活方式和年龄会影响控制基因功能的分子，”Kitlinska说。“这样的话，父亲不仅会影响他的下一代，也会对未来的子孙后代有所影响。”

The study, published in the American Journal of Stem Cells, is a review of human and animal evidence published to date on the link between fathers and heritable epigenetic programming.

《美国干细胞杂志》目前发布的研究回顾了人类和动物中父亲与表观遗传之间的联系。

For example, a newborn can be diagnosed with fatal alcohol syndrome⁹ (FASD) even if the mother never consumed alcohol.

比如说，即使母亲从来不喝酒，新生儿也可能会患有胎儿酒精综合症。

A“Up to 75 percent of children with FASD have biological fathers who are alcoholics¹⁰, suggesting that preconceptual paternal¹¹ alcohol consumption negatively impacts their offspring,” Kitlinska said in the news release.

“在患有胎儿酒精综合症的孩子中，父亲饮酒的比例高达75%。这表明在受孕之前，父亲饮酒会对后代产生负面影响，” Kitlinska在新闻发布会上说。

Researchers also found that advanced paternal age is correlated with elevated risks of schizophrenia, autism and birth defects in his children. Fathers who had a limited diet in pre-adolescence were linked to a reduced risk of cardiovascular death in his children and grandchildren.

研究人员还发现，高龄父亲会增加孩子患有精神分裂症、自闭症和先天畸形的风险。如果父亲在青春期之前限制饮食，那么子孙后代心血管死亡的风险就会大大降低。

“This new field of inherited paternal epigenetics needs to be organized into clinically applicable recommendations and lifestyle alternations,” Kitlinska said in the news release. “And to really understand the epigenetic influences of a child, we need to study the interplay between maternal¹² and paternal effects, as opposed to considering each in isolation¹³.”

“我们建议将父亲影响表观遗传的新发现应用于临床，而父亲也应该相应地改变他们的生活方式” Kitlinska在新闻发布会上说。“为了能真正理解表观遗传对孩子的影响，我们需要了解母亲和父亲对孩子的相互作用，而不能将父母双方对孩子的影响分开考虑。”