Do you think that your behavior will not influence your future generation?

With this article you will show that you could be wrong, and that truly your behaviour if affects them.

Do you think that the colour of your eyes or your hair are chosen randomly?

Any feature that we have inherited from generation to generation, and is determined by your genes, that are units of genetic transmission and their expression place gives to a hereditary character, for example the color of your eyes.

The genome is the set of genes that are in the chromosomes, that is to say the genetic material that has an organism or spice. It includes the whole DNA, therefore in every cell of our body we have the genome.

WHICH ARE THE LAST ADVANCES IN GENETICS? EPIGENETICS

According to the way in which you are, your genes may become affected, but always keeping intact the sequence of your DNA.

Conrad Hal Waddington in 1942 was the first person who spoke on the epigenetic, that is to say, the study of the relation of genes and the environment, which determines the expression of the above mentioned genes.

As we grow older, our genes change due to the environment. For example, there has been verified that smoking tobacco has negative consequences on our cells, leading to the appearance of the cancer. This was known and it has been demonstrated, but the great advance is the study of the epigenetics, that is to say, we have given a step further; and what a step!

A study has demonstrated, that during the Second World war, Holland suffered from a famine. The pregnant women of this time didn't feed well enough so that their babies were suffering stress, which provoked the appearance of diseases as schizophrenia and rickets. This didn't change their DNA but it provoked changes in the expression of their genes, affecting their following generations. In addition, there has been verified that the born babies of women who didn't live through these conditions didn't suffer from these changes, that is to say, they didn't suffer from the diseases that other babies had.

HOW CAN EPIGENETICS AFFECT AGING?

The importance that is given to the study of the epigenetic, leads to understanding  vital processes as we grow older. The epigenome in every cell is changing according to the stage of the development in which the person is.

For example, it has been observed that the genome changes in the human brain from the birth until it matures, but in the adult age it is kept stable. In the stage of the oldness there return to be changes.

In this case, it is impeded the work of the ARN, a copy of DNA, which goes out of the core of the cell and transports the genetic information, and diminishes the efficiency of the neurons.

AND REGARDING MEDICINE; WHERE WILL IT POSSIBLY COME UP TO?

Some epigenetics medicines, that according to Manel Esteller, the director of Epigenetic's Program and Biology of the Cancer in the Institute of Bellvitge's Biomedical Investigation, change the programming of the epigenome and these are applied for eight or ten years.

They are very effective, especially to treat leukaemias and linfomas. Now it is being investigated to treat other types of tumors; as the infantile ones.

In addition, they want to applied these treatments to lung, breast or colon cancer.

By: Blanca Montes and Puri Priego.