Specifically, we measured paternal blood pressure, waist circumference, fasting glucose and insulin levels.
A predominant effect of paternal blood pressure in influencing the same trait in the offspring emerged from the present study.
Few previous studies (2, 18– 20) have assessed maternal and paternal blood pressure effects separately, mainly because the majority of them have been underpowered for this kind of analysis.
This result is similar to previous data showing that parental blood pressure was a significant determinant of blood pressure in young offspring with type 1 diabetes, with a stronger effect of paternal SBP on the offspring's SBP, whereas the contribution of maternal and paternal DBP on the offspring's DBP was similar (17).
Pregnancy length was associated with maternal age at delivery, maternal smoking and maternal systolic blood pressure, whereas no association with pregnancy length was found for parity, maternal educational status, maternal BMI, paternal BMI and paternal systolic blood pressure (Table 1).
Initial univariable logistical regression analysis confirmed that paternal insulin resistance, blood pressure, and waist circumference were higher in case compared with control subjects, while flow-mediated dilatation was reduced and case fathers were more likely to smoke cigarettes (Table 3).
Brion et al. assessed the associations of both maternal and paternal smoking during pregnancy on blood pressure in the offspring, and observed similar effect estimates for both maternal and paternal smoking.
Brion et al. [7] reported that the effects of paternal and maternal smoking on blood pressure at 7 years were similar, although one would expect a stronger association with maternal smoking, as the latter is more strongly related to intrauterine growth than environmental tobacco exposure resulting from paternal smoking.
We have also assessed whether any association of parental height could be attributed to cardiovascular risk factors, and whether common paternal cardiovascular risk factors, including blood pressure, BMI, serum glucose and lipids, are associated with pregnancy length.
The fact that there are so many distinct mechanisms of UPI suggests to me that the selection pressure fluctuates, and that paternal leakage or BPI is more common than is claimed in the literature.
