For over a year, I have been studying fungal metabolites in the context of occupational health. I read a lot of papers and gradually began to understand the biological significance of these metabolites for the humans. The subject didn’t always have to do with actual occupational safety, but it was still exciting.
Last August I became a father again, and that made me start thinking about what this topic could mean for our children. There are a lot of things going through my head: mycotoxin contamination in food, epi-genetic influence on the unborn by fungi, mold spores in the air, volatile fungal metabolites, the role of fungi in the recolonization of the small human body during birth, and so on.
I put down the role of the father and considered this purely scientifically. If you search Google Scholar for the keywords“真菌代谢物表观遗传新生儿”you get about 3130 entries between the years 2021 – 2022 alone, so there seems to be an interest in the field.
Fungi in pre- / postnatal life
A review byAcevedo等。deals with perinatal nutrition and clarifies the relationship between external influences and epigenetics or allergies. In the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, children seem to be most susceptible to any external influences, including microbial ones.
为了形成过敏，再次列出了表观遗传学的机理。Epi-Geneticsis about changes in the genome, which first have nothing to do with the genetic basis, but are added from “outside”. In chemical terms, DNA is methylated, acetylated or otherwise modified.
阿塞维多（Acevedo）解释说，在产前和产后，各种微生物都会对人类产生影响。在真菌中，提到了一个可能的候选人Malassezia furfur，这表观遗传影响免疫学的特定蛋白质，例如IL-8或β-防御素。然而，根据Acevedo等人的说法，尽管真菌和其他微生物在内部，外部，外部和其他情况下都在人类中殖民人类，但该领域似乎相对尚未探索。
The prenatal influence by fungal is exciting but we will now have a closer look at fungal metabolites.
Mycotoxins in breast milk
Mycotoxins are present in many foods, in almost everything that comes from crops, cereals and more. A recent study by朱等。描述各种各样的霉菌毒素，例如黄曲霉毒素或尾毒素，也有表观遗传效应. Aflatoxins, natural fungal toxins mainly from曲霉are found in nuts, cereals or corn and thus end up on our plates. Which of course leads to the question of whether these are then also fed postnatally to the newborns?
这不仅是正确的，而且母乳也可以用作霉菌毒素污染食品的监测介质（尽管我宁愿适当地喂母乳而不是将其用于监测）。一项研究Diaz et al.describes that 90% of the samples tested contained the monohydroxylated form of aflatoxin B1 (AFM1), a very toxic mycotoxin. The samples were donated by volunteer women from Colombia, and the authors conclude that these high levels may also be climatic, as molds grow better in warm, humid regions. Other studies come to similar high values, 94% in aNepalese study, 75% in aPakistani study.
You are what you eat!
因此，很清楚，营养决定了母乳的组成，因此决定了孩子的营养。不仅是霉菌毒素，而且还传递了重金属和其他物质，这实际上已经知道：喂养人不应吸烟，喝或食用其他物质。但是，这对孩子会带来什么长期后果？这使我们回到了Epi-Genetics。根据van Esch等。, prenatal and postnatal food intake is essential for the later susceptibility to all kinds of chronic diseases, allergies, diabetes and many others. As a cause for this late adaptation epigenetics plays a major role. This also applies to mycotoxins, as various studies show (示例1,2, and3）。因此，从科学上讲，我可以说您应该注意如何养活孩子。
To breastfeed or not to breastfeed, that is the question here
It’s time to jump back into the role of being a father. And from this perspective, some will protest now, one should not worry too much. I personally think it is more important to breast-feed kids than to worry about the milk´s composition or pollution. According to theWorld Health Organization (WHO），在全球范围内，只有大约41％的婴儿是只有母乳喂养的。儿童是否喂母乳取决于许多因素，西方和发展中国家之间存在很大的差异。根据我的经验，经过几次操场对话，社会文化方面和您自己的心态也起着作用。但是不要误会我的意思，在某些病理状态下，根本不可能接受母乳喂养。
All in all, the mentioned fungal influences on the babies usually move into the background. I think the influence is also not detectable by eye or phenotypically visible in the short term, or perhaps only becomes apparent later. Or maybe we are not interested in it, because we still see our children growing up healthy?
I got quite off topic, but I want to thank you for your attention and encourage everyone to get involved with children AND mushrooms. Both fascinating topics!
注释