Parental Alcohol Exposures Promote Increased Susceptibility to Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Adult Male Offspring

There is a growing interest in understanding how lifestyle choices and social factors affect life expectancy, healthspan, and the onset of chronic age-related diseases, including cancer. Although alcohol is a known carcinogen that accounts for roughly one-third of primary liver cancer cases worldwide, it is not yet known if chronic alcohol consumption by an individual’s parents heritably influences their predisposition to developing liver cancer. Here, we employed our established multiplex mouse model to compare sensitivities of the male offspring of maternal, paternal, and dual-parental alcohol exposures to the potent hepatocellular carcinoma inducer, Diethylnitrosamine (DEN), and determine their predisposition for tumor formation and growth. Our experiments reveal that chronic parental alcohol consumption programs a pro-tumor environment in the liver. This increased cancer susceptibility correlates with increased steatosis, hepatic fibrosis, inflammation, and oxidative stress. Interestingly, some of these changes display accumulative effects and are more pronounced when both parents are exposed to alcohol.