Figure 2.

Effects of paternal nutrition status and environment on their offspring. The paternal nutritional status can act on offspring’s growth and metabolism and, therefore, its predisposition to various diseases in adulthood. That is related to the fetal programming hypothesis because fathers act indirectly on fetal growth. Besides, in the same way as the DOHaD theory, the POHaD paradigm suggests that the paternal environment could also influence the offspring’s metabolic changes. Mechanisms underlying all these events are poorly understood, but emerging evidence suggests that it could be transmitted through the sperm epigenome, notably in the case of negative pregnancy outcomes.