A new study in fruit flies reveals how certain experiences early in life, such as a poor diet, could have a long-term impact on our genes, affecting our health and life expectancy in later life.
- “We may be able to develop ways to counteract these changes later in life to preserve health and allow people to stay healthy longer,” the authors say.
- The life expectancy of the generation born in 2022 is estimated at 93 years for girls, 90 years for boys.
- A progress of 37 years for women and 42 years for men, compared to the generation born in 1900.
The first experiences of our life could have a long-term impact on the activity of our genes and even affect our life expectancy. This is revealed by a new study on fruit flies conducted by researchers from the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) in Belgium. According to the team behind the study, published this Thursday in the journal Nature Agingthis gene “memory” could be an interesting avenue for improving health at the end of life.
Genes would have a kind of memory that affects health later
“Health in old age depends in part on what a person experienced in their youth or even in their mother’s womb. We have identified one way this happens because changes in gene expression during youth can form a ‘memory’ that impacts health long after”said the lead author, Dr. Nazif Alic, in a communicated.
The scientists built on their previous research in which they found that fruit flies, when fed a high-sugar diet early, lived shorter lives, even after their diet improved at ‘adulthood.
Why ? The researchers then discovered that a high-sugar diet actually inhibited a part of genes (called dFOXO) involved in glucose metabolism, which affects life expectancy. So they reactivated it by increasing its levels during the fly’s first three weeks of adulthood.
“What happens early in life can affect your genes”
This caused changes in the genes that persisted into their lives. As a result, some of the changes expected as part of the normal aging process were prevented, resulting in improved health of the flies at the end of their lives and increasing their lifespan by more than a month ( half a fruit fly life).
“What happens early in life can affect how your genes are expressed later, for better or for worse”adds Dr. Alic. “It may be that a poor diet early in life, for example, can impact our metabolism later in life by adjusting the way our genes are expressed, even after substantial dietary changes over the years. , but fortunately it may well be possible to reverse this trend” he continues.