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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:
A history of early-onset paternal obesity increases the odds of elevated liver enzyme levels in offspring and points to the potential for a genetic link between obesity and liver disease, according to a study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.
A secondary analysis, excluding obese offspring, produced a strengthened connection between paternal early-onset obesity and elevated serum ALT levels, demonstrating that the link between obesity in the father and elevated serum ALT levels in the offspring is independent of the child's body mass index (BMI) and persists among non-obese children.
These elevated levels are potentially due to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is now considered to be the most common cause of serum ALT elevations in the U.S. population and is associated with obesity.
The Framingham Heart Study is a prospective, community-based, family study supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Both parents had to have been participants in the Framingham Heart Study for the child to qualify.
Founded in 1897, the AGA is one of the oldest medical-specialty societies in the U.S. Comprised of two non-profit organizations---the AGA and the AGA Institute---our more than 16,000 members include physicians and scientists who research, diagnose and treat disorders of the gastrointestinal tract and liver.
Gastroenterology, the official journal of the AGA Institute, is the most prominent scientific journal in the specialty and is in the top 1 percent of indexed medical journals internationally.
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Posted on April 1, 2008 2:04 PM
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