title: Dietary microbes modulate transgenerational cancer risk.
abstract: Environmental factors are suspected in the increase of obesity and cancer in industrialized countries but are poorly understood. Here, we used animal models to test how future generations may be affected by Westernized diets. We discover long-term consequences of grandmothers' in utero dietary exposures, leading to high rates of obesity and frequent cancers of lung and liver in two subsequent generations of mice. Transgenerational effects were transplantable using diet-associated bacteria communities alone. Consequently, feeding of beneficial microbes was sufficient to lower transgenerational risk for cancer and obesity regardless of diet history. Targeting microbes may be a highly effective population-based approach to lower risk for cancer.
authors.affiliation: Division of Comparative Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Laboratory of Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Theofilos
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Poutahidis
authors.affiliation: Division of Comparative Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Bernard J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Varian
authors.affiliation: Division of Comparative Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Tatiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Levkovich
authors.affiliation: Division of Comparative Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Jessica R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Lakritz
authors.affiliation: Division of Comparative Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Sheyla
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mirabal
authors.affiliation: Division of Comparative Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Caitlin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kwok
authors.affiliation: Division of Comparative Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Yassin M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Ibrahim
authors.affiliation: Division of Comparative Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Sean M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Kearney
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Antonis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chatzigiagkos
authors.affiliation: Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Eric J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Alm
authors.affiliation: Division of Comparative Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. serdman@mit.edu.
authors.forename: Susan E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Erdman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D021461:Animals, Outbred Strains; D066273:Diet, Western / Q000009:adverse effects; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000382:microbiology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D064307:Microbiota; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000382:microbiology*; D009765:Obesity / Q000209:etiology; D012306:Risk