Pakistani neuroscientist, Dr. Ali Jawaid, along with fellow researchers hasidentified metabolic factors responsible for transmitting the effects oftraumatic experiences from parents to children.

After previously demonstrating that adverse exposures in the early life ofparents can lead to many psychological and metabolic perturbations in thechildren, Dr. Jawaid has now shown that the main culprit behind thetransmission of these effects are certain chemicals known as metabolites inthe blood of parents.——————————

During the first phase of the study, the research team studied trauma in amouse model where the newly born pups were separated from their mothers andwere raised by stressed mothers, similar to many cases of childhoodadversity in humans.

The team found that this traumatic exposure affected many metabolites,especially fatty acids in the blood. They also found that these alteredfatty acids made their way to the sperm cells and changed the activity ofnuclear receptors, an important regulator of gene expression. Therefore,when the offspring were born, it had an altered metabolic makeup andresponded atypically to periods of high sugar intake or starvation.

They also injected the blood taken from the traumatized mice into regularmice and saw that it recapitulated the effects of trauma, thus concludingthat these chemicals in the blood are mediators of this unique form of‘trauma transmission’ from parents to children.