Epigenetics, stilboestrol and ADHD

The rapidly expanding science of epigenetics turns on its head everything we learnt from Darwin about acquired characteristics not being inherited. There is plenty of experimental evidence in animals that specific environmental influences can permanently alter DNA, and increasing hints that it might be important in humans. A study from the US has suggested that epigenetic effects might be passed on not just to the offspring of those exposed, but also to a second generation (Kioumourtzoglou MA et al. JAMA Peds 2018. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2018.0727).

Stilboestrol was a drug given to pregnant women to prevent miscarriage, and in a famous study from the 1970s, it was shown to cause carcinoma of the vagina, a rare tumour, in the adult daughters of women who had taken it. Further work has suggested in addition an association with menstrual disorders in the daughters and hypospadias in the sons of these women. Other research has...

from Archives of Disease in Childhood current issue https://ift.tt/2uNTwKd