Paternal obesity and programming of offspring health

Abstract

The physical and nutritional environment experienced by the mother prior to and during conception is imperative to the outcome of pregnancy and offspring health. In addition there is now mounting evidence that paternal exposures and conditions at the time of conception are also an important determinant of pregnancy outcome and offspring health. Specifically, male obesity is now demonstrated to have detrimental impacts on fertility and fetal development during subsequent pregnancy and can exert programming effects on the phenotype of offspring lasting up to two generations. We summarise the evidence of the effect of environmental exposures on seminal plasma and sperm, focusing on the effects of obesity, and what bearing this has for offspring both in humans and animal models. The current knowledge of what might form the molecular basis of the phenomena of paternal programming of offspring health are also reviewed with consideration given to signals from both seminal plasma and sperm.