Maternal Type 1 Diabetes Linked to Epigenetic Changes in Offspring

Children with a family history of type 1 diabetes (T1D) have an increased risk of developing the disease. However, children born to mothers with T1D are less likely to develop the disease than those whose fathers or siblings have T1D. A new study published in Nature Metabolism has identified distinct blood methylome changes in children exposed to maternal T1D. Some of these changes were related to reduced islet autoimmunity development, suggesting that epigenetic mechanisms may underlie the protection against islet autoimmunity. The work is a collaboration between Helmholtz Munich, the Global Platform for the Prevention of Autoimmune Diabetes (GPPAD), and the TU Dresden University of Technology.

Type 1 diabetes: Risk differs depending on affected family member

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system destroys the body’s own insulin-producing beta-cells in the pancreas, leaving patients with a lifelong dependency on external insulin.children whose parents or siblings have type 1 diabetes have an 8- to 15-fold increased risk of developing the autoimmune disease themselves. Though, this risk isn’t evenly distributed: a child of a mother with type 1 diabetes has a lower risk of developing type 1 diabetes than a child with a father or sibling with type 1 diabetes.Interestingly, genetic susceptibility to type 1 diabetes has been shown to be comparable between the offspring of mothers and the offspring of fathers with type 1 diabetes. Therefore, researchers suspected that early-life epigenetic programming may be a key mechanism through which maternal type 1 diabetes confers a protective effect.

epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation determine which genes are ultimately read and expressed. By changing DNA methylation patterns, environmental influences in the womb – such as smoking by the mother, medical conditions, stress, or diet – can have far-reaching effects on a child’s health.