Washington - A study published Thursday in the journal "The American Journal of Human Genetics" revealed that smoking during pregnancy modifies the DNA of the fetus, which could explain its link to certain complications in the health of babies.
In a questionnaire, mothers had to answer frequently smoked occasionally or not at all during pregnancy. Then an international team of researchers analyzed the DNA of 6,685 newborns and compared with tobacco use their mothers in one of the most comprehensive studies ever conducted on this topic.
The scientists, who managed to DNA samples of babies through the umbilical cord blood, identified in the children of smoking mothers often 6,073 points where the DNA had been modified compared to non-smoking mothers of babies. Furthermore, they determined that this collection of genes is related to the development of the lungs and nervous system, cancers linked to cigarette smoking and birth defects like cleft palate.
In a separate analysis, many of these DNA changes were present in older children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy.
"We knew that the harelip is related to the fact that smoking during pregnancy, but do not yet know why. The chemical modification of DNA is perhaps involved in some way in this process," said Sthepanie London, the lead author of the study and medical the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The next steps in this research will be new genetic analyzes to better understand how the chemical DNA refurbishments can influence the child's development and future diseases.
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