Abstract
Chiam, Karen PhD
PhD (Medicine) awarded in June 2010, University of Adelaide/ Dame Roma Mitchell Cancer Research Laboratories/ Hanson Institute
Mum's high fat diet during pregnancy may be an early risk factor for prostate cancer in adult rat offspring
Prostate cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers and ranks second in mortality among all cancers in Western countries men. There is evidence suggesting that high birth weight of newborns is associated with an increased incidence and mortality of prostate cancer in adulthodd. High birth weight is an indicator of excess nutritional supply to babies in their mother's womb. In today's modern lifestyle, the frequent consumption of a high fat diet by pregnant mothers may be a major factor contributing to an excess nutritional supply to their babies.
Using the rat, one of the few species that develops prostate cancer spontaneously with ageing, we investigated whether pregnant mothers fed a high fat diet have male offspring with abnormal changes in their prostates after puberty, which may result in an increased incidence prostate cancer in adulthood.
We also provide evidence that epigenetic modifications may be involved in contributing to the abnormal prostate development in offspring exposed to a maternal high fat diet (MHFD). Unlike mutations, epigenetic modifications are heritable, reversible, biochemical changes that regulate gene expression without changing the DNA sequence. The reversible nature of epigenetic modifications make them good targets for potential therapies for offspring with an increased risk of prostate cancer due to a MHFD. This rat model will also be a valuable tool to identify new genes involved in the development of prostate cancer.