Rutgers Study: Drinking During Pregnancy Alters Genes in Newborns, Mothers

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Researchers found changes to two genes in women who drank moderate to high levels of alcohol during pregnancy. Credits: Syani Mukherjee/Rutgers University-New Brunswick

NEW BRUNSWICK – Mothers who drink moderate to high levels of alcohol during pregnancy may be changing their babies’ DNA, according to a Rutgers-led study.

“Our findings may make it easier to test children for prenatal alcohol exposure – and enable early diagnosis and intervention that can help improve the children’s lives,” said lead author Dipak K. Sarkar, a Distinguished Professor and director of the Endocrine Program in the Department of Animal Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

The study by Sarkar and scientists in a Collaborative Initiative on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders is in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Building on an earlier Rutgers-led study that found binge and heavy drinking may trigger long-lasting genetic change in adults, the researchers sought alcohol-induced DNA changes in 30 pregnant women and 359 children.

They found changes to two genes – POMC, which regulates the stress-response system, and PER2, which influences the body’s biological clock – in women who drank moderate to high levels of alcohol during pregnancy and in children who had been exposed to those levels of alcohol in the womb.

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