Several rare genetic disorders, including dwarfism, are more prevalent among the children of older fathers.<\/p>\n
University of Copenhagen and University of Oxford researchers have discovered a surprising genetic link between the formation of benign testicular tumours and such genetic diseases, writes the British news website timesonline.co.uk.<\/p>\n
Abnormal testicular cells in these tumours, known as Spermatocytic seminomas, produce sperm carrying mutant genes that cause inherited diseases, research at the Copenhagen University Hospital has shown.<\/p>\n
\u00bbWe think most men develop these tiny clumps of mutant cells in their testicles as they age,\u00ab says Professor Andrew Wilkie of the University of Oxford, who led the research.<\/p>\n
\u00bbThey are rather like moles in the skin, usually harmless in themselves. But by being located in the testicle, they also make sperm – causing children to be born with a variety of serious conditions,\u00ab he adds.<\/p>\n
The findings offer important new insights into the origin of several rare genetic disorders, including a cause of dwarfism called achondroplasia. <\/p>\n
The implications of this research could also lead to inisights into the genetic causes of more common conditions such as autism, schizophrenia and breast cancer.<\/p>\n
\u00bbWhat we have seen so far may just be the tip of a large iceberg of mildly harmful mutations being introduced into our genome. These mutations would be too weak and too rare to be picked up by our current technology, but their sheer number would have a cumulative effect, leading to disease,\u00ab explains Professor Wilkie.<\/p>\n
Details of the research are published in the journal Nature Genetics. <\/p>\n
The research team is now planning to investigate whether testicular abnormalities might be linked to conditions such as autism and schizophrenia. <\/p>\n
The results will help doctors to explain to parents why children have developed these disorders, and to advise them about the risks of having further children. <\/p>\n
\u00bbThe major implication is for older fathers,\u00ab says Andrew Wilkie. <\/p>\n
\u00bbWe already knew that men in their 50s have a risk of having children with various individually rare genetic disorders \u2014 achondroplasia is a well known one \u2014 about tenfold higher than men in their early 20s.\u00ab <\/p>\n
luci@adm.ku.dk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Children of older fathers are more likely to have certain genetic diseases. U of C research collaboration pinpoints testicular tumors as the cause<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":24467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","expression-news_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n