Depending on what mom eats, her children's facial features will be

Changes in a pregnant woman’s diet could interact and influence the complex genetic machinery that creates a series of individual facial characteristics

MADRID (EFE).— The protein content of a pregnant woman’s diet can influence the shape of her offspring’s facial features, according to a study carried out in mice.

The results are published in the journal “Nature Communications” and, according to the authors, allow us to understand how environmental factors, such as maternal nutrition, influence fetal growth.

Facial shape development is a complex process that occurs in utero. Birth defects, including cleft palate and the bones of the skull joining together too early, can occur when errors occur.

Although genetic causes have been identified, it is also known that environmental factors play a role, the magazine summarizes.

Identical twins share genetic and environmental influences, but still show slight differences in their facial features. How subtler facial features form during development is less clear.

To try to clarify this, researchers from the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Gothenburg used a method to search for “enhancers”—regions of DNA that regulate gene expression—during facial development in human embryos.

Next, the team, led by Andrei Chagin and Igor Adameyko, crossed these enhancers with a list of genes known to help explain variation in facial features in humans.

Several of these enhancers were related to genes associated with the mTORC1 pathway, which controls cellular processes in response to nutrition.

Activation of this pathway during early embryonic development in mice and zebrafish resulted in enlarged facial features and thick nasal cartilage. Repression of the pathway led to an elongated face in zebrafish and an elongated snout in mice.

Different appearance

Embryos from pregnant mice fed a high-protein diet showed alterations in mTORC1 signaling, as well as larger nasal capsules and lower jaw bones compared to embryos from pregnant mice fed low-protein diets, the work concludes.

Therefore, the authors suggest that changes in maternal diet could interact and influence the complex genetic machinery that creates a series of individual facial features.

The work considers that this pathway may play a role in the formation of human facial features, although the researchers emphasize that further study is necessary.

The development of craniofacial skeletal structures is “fascinatingly complex” and the explanation of the underlying mechanisms will not only provide new scientific knowledge, but will also help develop more effective clinical approaches for treatment and/or prevention, the authors emphasize in their article. .