Paternal Age and Genetic Mutation

[vampares]

how-old-is-too-old.blogspot.com

"The cells that create a man's sperm divide roughly once every 16 days. By the time a man is 50, that division has occurred more than 800 times. Those cells determine the genetic code that will be in the sperm- and every time they divide, there's a chance that the genetic code will be altered. With every alteration comes a greater chance of genetic deterioration that could open the door to birth defects.

It takes only 24 cell divisions in a woman's body to produce her lifetime supply of eggs, and those divisions occur before the woman is even born. That may provide more genetic stability for eggs than for sperm."

 

Paternal age linked mutations (maternal age not always contradicted):

Marfan, Apert, Crouzon, Pfeiffer, Downs, Huntington's (only expands in males), schizophrenia, Klippel–Trenaunay–Weber.

 

No age linkage:

Treacher Collins syndrome

 

Huntington's is known to be a progressive disease by expansion. This is the only mechanism I have found so far which was propositioned a mechanism of mutation. I have not found spontaneous mutation linkages, even though it stands to reason that all mutation would increase, both by natural decay (male and female) and ordinary copy errors (male linkage only).

[Mr Skeptic]

Depends how you look at it. Older women have about 100 times the probability of getting a mutation just before menopause puts an end to that. In having the cells ready but not dividing, the cells might grow "old" as they are not being renewed by replicating.

[vampares]

I read this in a Woman's magazine in 1998 (I have a subscription to Harper's). It is missleading. The mutations are a result of the woman's age but because of the age of the male.

 

The age linkage exists because:

• Women tend to marry older men. The age difference increases as her age increases.
  
• Genetically aberrant individuals are less recognizable as they age. Anomalies can be mistakenly attributed with age. Older men tend to gain clout with age. Age may be mistaken for a similarity to a father figure.
  
• Older women are more desperate.
  
• Children of older parents are more likely to be diagnosed with a birth defect because of the increase in medical spending and care.
  

 

Most 40 yo women are not going to marry 20 yo men. Unless they already have married one 20 years ago.

 

There was a Down's risk study that was done in regards to woman's age. It has since been disproved as fact.

 

The tests I found as far back as the sixty's up to the present date indicate that the mutation increases are in the male. Not much towards the relation: 'prior (non)mutation'/'mutation expansion or inception'. I can't say what impinges upon such a study, besides being compounded. It's just sort of a watery assumption I guess.

 

Other perinatal complications are increased (c-section, misscarriage, etc.).