TABLE 1.

Environmental insults that can induce transgenerational inheritance of obesity and obesity associated metabolic disorders.

Environmental factor	Category	Effects	References
4,4′-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) 4,4′-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) Methoxychlor	Pesticide	Weight gain, altered glucose homeostasis; increased adipogenesis and lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 cells; F3 generation sperm epimutations and differential DNA methylation regions (DMR). Increased adiposity and tumor development	Howell and Mangum, 2011; Skinner et al., 2013; Kim et al., 2016 Manikkam et al., 2014
Bis-phenol-A (BPA) Phthalates	Plastics	Increased adiposity and DNA methylation epimutations in sperm related to obesity genes	Manikkam et al., 2013
Cadmium Lead	Heavy metals	Increased risk of obesity in children. Increase in weight and triglycerides level, hepatic lipid accumulation, DNA hypermethylation	Green et al., 2018 Sun et al., 2017
Tributyltin (TBT)	Organotins	Increased WAT depot weights, hypertrophy, hyperplasia; hepatic lipid accumulation in three subsequent generations; transmissible changes in chromatin organization; global changes in DNA methylation; induce phenotype resembling NAFLD through atleast three subsequent generations.	Chamorro-García et al., 2013; Chamorro-Garcia et al., 2017
Maternal HFD Paternal HFD	Overnutrition	Weight gain, glucose intolerance, hypertension, abnormal adipocytokine levels, epigenetic changes in adipocytokines, leptin and adiponectin genes Changes in sperm miRNA profile and methylation status of germ cell, increased adiposity in future generation.	Masuyama et al., 2015 Fullston et al., 2013
Paternal prediabetes	Metabolic defect	Alteration in methylome pattern of sperm, transgenerational inheritance of diabetes (glucose intolerance and insulin resistance in offspring).	Wei et al., 2014