According to a breakthrough study published in the Journal of Distribution, when the heart is injured in the early stages of life, the memory of this traumatic memory can not only accompany the individual, but also pass on to the next generation.
Scientists at Centro Nacional de Respejionless Carlos III (CNIC) and the University of Bern found that even though these offspring never encountered heart problems, the measurable changes in their youth triggers and the function of offspring.
“The offspring of injured fathers showed evidence of heart developmental changes, characterized by a brief expansion of the left ventricle in the first few weeks after birth,” explained study first author Benedetta Coppe. “This surprised us because the only difference between newborns is that in one population, the father suffered a heart injury early in life, while in another group, the father was not injured.”
This discovery is of great significance to human health. Nearly 40,000 children in the United States and 30,000 children in Europe require heart surgery every year. Understanding how these early cardiac surgeries may not only affect patients, but also how their future children reshape their medical history.
The findings of the study suggest that in the first few weeks after birth, heart surgery will eventually be transmitted to the next generation, which gives lasting “memory” an adaptation to genetic adaptation to heart stress.
Surprisingly, when the researchers experimented with heart injury in the offspring of a previously injured father, they found that the mice actually showed improved heart remodeling compared to offspring of the uninjured father. This enhanced remodeling is associated with an increase in blood volume popping up the heart every minute, suggesting better adaptation to cardiac stress.
Nadia Runner, who leads the research team, noted another strange finding: “After injury, the heart usually switches its energy from lipid to glucose, which leads to the accumulation of lipids in the heart tissue.” However, the team observed: “The offspring of injured fathers accumulate less lipids due to inducing heart damage and has a higher concentration of circulating lipids in the blood. These observations suggest that mice with this “family history” recover better when these mice themselves suffer from heart damage.”
The researchers believe that these findings open new avenues to understand how early life may affect future generations. The study also highlights that family surgery history (not just genetic history) may be an important part of comprehensive medical records.
Although human research is needed to confirm whether people have similar inheritance patterns, this work highlights how physical trauma in a generation is prepared for future generations to better withstand similar challenges, resulting in a biological memory.
For thousands of adults undergoing heart surgery, the study provides a new dimension for their family health, which can be considered that the heart does remember, and that memory may last longer than previously thought.
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