Parental arsenic exposure before pregnancy and inherited diabetes risk
Preconception iAs exposure: diabetes and epigenetic inheritance
This work looks at whether parents' exposure to inorganic arsenic before conception can lead to diabetes-related changes in their children.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Univ of North Carolina Chapel Hill NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Chapel Hill, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11261758 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
Researchers will expose genetically diverse mice engineered to process arsenic like humans to inorganic arsenic before they mate and then follow their offspring for diabetes-like traits across two generations. They will analyze blood, tissues, and germ-cell epigenetic marks to see if parental exposure causes heritable changes in gene regulation. The team will compare different genetic backgrounds from the Collaborative Cross and test how dietary methyl donors such as folate and vitamin B12 affect outcomes. The approach is meant to model human arsenic metabolism and reveal mechanisms that might explain multigenerational diabetes risk.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: People of reproductive age or families with known or suspected arsenic exposure who are concerned about inherited diabetes risk would be the human populations most connected to this work.
Not a fit: People without arsenic exposure or whose diabetes has clear non-environmental causes (for example, certain monogenic forms) are less likely to directly benefit from these specific findings.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the findings could explain how parental arsenic exposure raises diabetes risk in descendants and point to prevention strategies or dietary recommendations to lower that risk.
How similar studies have performed: Epidemiologic studies link chronic arsenic exposure to type 2 diabetes and prior mouse work showed parental arsenic can produce offspring diabetes, but using humanized, genetically diverse mice to study multigenerational epigenetic inheritance is a newer approach.
Where this research is happening
Chapel Hill, United States
- Univ of North Carolina Chapel Hill — Chapel Hill, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Pardo-Manuel de Villena, Fernando — Univ of North Carolina Chapel Hill
- Study coordinator: Pardo-Manuel de Villena, Fernando
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.