Transgenerational impact of early childhood famine exposure in the cohort of leningrad siege survivors’ offsprings

Objective: Famine exposure in early life may promote the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of phenotypic variability. It may increase susceptibility or contribute to disease resistance in offspring. The research aims to assess the prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors in the descendants of besieged Leningrad residents and in controls from population-based sample comparable in sex, age, and body mass index (BMI). Design and method: The besieged Leningrad residents were exposed to famine in early childhood during the Second World War (1941-1944). There were examined 87 descendants of Leningrad Siege survivors aged 18 to 63 (56 children and 29 grandchildren) without cardiovascular complications. Anthropometry, blood pressure (BP) measurement, biochemical blood tests were performed, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was estimated using the CKD-EPI equation. Controls from the population-based national epidemiological ESSE-RF study (n = 175) were matched by sex, age, and BMI. Phenotypes of controls and descendants were compared, correcting for multiple hypothesis testing. Results: After multiple comparison correction only higher creatinine level and low GFR were recorded as statistically significant differences between Siege survivors’ descendants and the control group (Table 1). Table 1. Comparative analysis of Leningrad Siege survivors’ descendants and control group. Conclusions: Ancestral famine exposure in early childhood contributed to a decrease of kidney filtration capacity in offspring. One of the potential mechanisms could be associated with alterations in epigenome through programming of nephron deficiency in germ cells but further molecular studies would be required for confirmation.