BASIC RESEARCH
Fathers-to-Be, Take Note
A wave of research shows how a pregnancy can be put at risk by drinking, diet
and exposures to toxins on the part of the male. by Anita Slomski
Kaylon Bruner-Tran was studying female mice whose mothers were exposed to toxins. She was interested in endometriosis, which meant she had no need for the male offspring. The professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center often wished there was more to learn about pregnancy from the males.
Bruner-Tran cracked open that research door. “It turns out that dads matter a great deal to the health of a pregnancy,” says Bruner-Tran, who found that the adult males exposed to toxins in utero had misshapen sperm swimming in circles. With 10% of babies in the United States born preterm, “improving the father’s health prior to conception may be the neglected piece of the puzzle to prevent pregnancy disorders,” she say