On the cards she said was a larger sample of animals to give better data for statistical analysis, and to look at whether male offspring show the same impaired insulin synthesis. I think the interesting thing is, this really represents an advance in our understanding of potential paternal influences on the metabolic health of offspring, she added.

According to Dr Iain Frame, of British charity Diabetes UK if these results were translated to humans, it could help improve health outcomes in people at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes. He added, We will watch this promising area of research closely.

Some experts have criticized the results too. Stephen O'Rahilly, a clinical biochemist at the University of Cambridge, UK, said, the difference in glucose tolerance between these animals is pretty slim, and the number of animals in the study was too few to give a robust signal. Tracy Bale, a researcher in neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia also added, What this study doesn't discern between is pubertal exposure and adult exposure in the father rats, because Morris's team covered the whole window So in humans, it does not mean that if a man eats a cheeseburger one night, and mates with his spouse the next day, that they will have a child with -cell dysfunction. That would be remarkable. O'Rahilly concluded, This is an interesting and provocative paper, but science eventually comes out in the wash If it is real, other people will find it.