Prenatal Smoking Affects Offspring

A U.S. study suggests strong evidence that the effects of maternal smoking during pregnancy can lead to cardiac vascular dysfunction of offspring.

Loma Linda University School of Medicine researchers suggest that prenatal nicotine exposure selectively decreases coronary flow in adult female offspring.

The findings, presented at the 120th annual meeting of the American Physiological Society in Washington, suggest that prenatal nicotine exposure causes a reprogramming of cardiac function.

In addition, the effect of nicotine was significantly more pronounced in females than in males.

A 2004 report by the U.S. surgeon general found that women who smoked during pregnancy had children who were at a three times higher risk for sudden infant death syndrome than were the offspring of non-smokers.