Family ties: offspring born to women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Disturbances during intrauterine life have been implicated in the origin of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and may modify the endocrine and metabolic function of a child born to a mother with PCOS independently of genetic inheritance and sex. Daughters of women with PCOS show 4 components of the syndrome (ovarian dysfunction, neuroendocrine dysfunction, hyperandrogenism, and hyperinsulinemia) that appear in a sequential pattern during infancy, childhood, and puberty increasing the chance for developing PCOS during adulthood. Sons born to mothers with PCOS show few reproductive but important metabolic disturbances. These metabolic features, both in girls and boys, have early cardiovascular effects that may put these children at risk for later cardiovascular disease. Recent combined animal/human models have been able to identify common markers that will help us elucidate the precise mechanisms involved in the transgenerational transmission of this syndrome and provide possible therapies to prevent it.