Older fathers may mean shorter lifespan for offspring, study shows

HAVING an old father could knock years off your life, according to new research. Experiments on mice found the offspring of elderly males had a lifespan that was two months shorter on average - the equivalent of several years in humans.

It follows previous studies suggesting a link between older fathers and a greater risk of epilepsy, autism and some cancers in their progeny.

Researchers from Bonn, Germany, said although the findings were based on rodents, they may also apply to humans. Dr. Dan Ehninger said: “What we have described here are fundamental mechanisms in a mammalian model organism. These could also be relevant for humans.”

Women have long been warned the older they are, the greater the risk of health problems for them and their baby.

But there is a growing body of research that suggests a father's can also affect a baby's health.

Ehninger and colleagues from the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Bonn identified a rise in the number of chemicals related to ageing and disease in the mice born to older fathers.

The sperm of old males, as well as the tissue from their offspring featured similar 'epigenetic' changes to their Deoxy ribonucleic Acid (DNA) caused by lifestyle factors.

The results published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences are indicative of influences on the ageing process handed down from father to son and could be relevant in a human context.

Ehninger said: “Statistically, certain diseases occur more often in children of old fathers than in the offspring of young men.

“This is the case, for example, for psychiatric disorders such as autism or schizophrenia.

“Associations between paternal age and health outcomes in offspring, described by a number of epidemiological studies, could arise for many reasons.

“We wanted to address whether age-related biological changes in the male germ line could underlie effects on offspring health.