對非親緣母親產(chǎn)出的體外受精（IVF）兒童的分析讓科學(xué)家可以區(qū)分基因和產(chǎn)前環(huán)境對胎兒產(chǎn)生的影響,。科學(xué)家長久以來知道子宮環(huán)境是胎兒發(fā)育的一個關(guān)鍵,，而且在子宮內(nèi)的經(jīng)歷——諸如產(chǎn)前暴露在母親吸煙的環(huán)境下——可能對胎兒產(chǎn)生永久性的影響,。
英國研究人員Frances Rice及其同事分析了779名通過IVF出生的兒童，以確定產(chǎn)前暴露在吸煙環(huán)境下的影響,。低出生體重和反社會行為已經(jīng)與孕婦吸煙聯(lián)系在了一起,，但是這組科學(xué)家證明了反社會行為只與有親緣關(guān)系的母親產(chǎn)出的嬰兒有聯(lián)系。體外受精應(yīng)用的不斷增加帶來了一個研究非親緣關(guān)系母親產(chǎn)出的嬰兒的結(jié)果的機會,。這組科學(xué)家說,，這些發(fā)現(xiàn)有可能讓科學(xué)家區(qū)分基因和環(huán)境對各種其他疾病的影響。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
PNAS Published online before print February 2, 2009, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0808798106
Disentangling prenatal and inherited influences in humans with an experimental design
Frances Ricea,1,2, Gordon T. Haroldb,3, Jacky Boivinb, Dale F. Hayb, Marianne van den Breea and Anita Thapara,1
aDepartment of Psychological Medicine, School of Medicine and
bSchool of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF14 4XN, Wales, United Kingdom
Abstract
Exposure to adversity in utero at a sensitive period of development can bring about physiological, structural, and metabolic changes in the fetus that affect later development and behavior. However, the link between prenatal environment and offspring outcomes could also arise and confound because of the relation between maternal and offspring genomes. As human studies cannot randomly assign offspring to prenatal conditions, it is difficult to test whether in utero events have true causal effects on offspring outcomes. We used an unusual approach to overcome this difficulty whereby pregnant mothers are either biologically unrelated or related to their child as a result of in vitro fertilization (IVF). In this sample, prenatal smoking reduces offspring birth weight in both unrelated and related offspring, consistent with effects arising through prenatal mechanisms independent of the relation between the maternal and offspring genomes. In contrast, the association between prenatal smoking and offspring antisocial behavior depended on inherited factors because association was only present in related mothers and offspring. The results demonstrate that this unusual prenatal cross-fostering design is feasible and informative for disentangling inherited and prenatal effects on human health and behavior. Disentangling these different effects is invaluable for pinpointing markers of prenatal adversity that have a causal effect on offspring outcomes. The origins of behavior and many common complex disorders may begin in early life, therefore this experimental design could pave the way for identifying prenatal factors that affect behavior in future generations.
