London - Men – like women – have a “biological clock” and delaying fatherhood could result in serious developmental problems for children, new research suggests.
Older men have long been known to be more likely to father children with birth defects.
Now Oxford University scientists have found that a gene mutation hijacks the “production line” cells that make new sperm.
The cells then churn out replicas of the mutant sperm cells in a similar way to how cancer tumour cells proliferate.
As the genetically defective sperm cells multiply, the risk of an older man fathering a child with a genetic disorder increases. The issue is becoming of “particular significance”, the scientists warn. The average age of fatherhood in England and Wales increased from 31 in the early 1990s to nearly 33 by 2013, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The scientists, writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, say recent studies of the DNA of children with genetic diseases show that fathers are responsible for most of the genetic mutations that cause them, which “increase in frequency with the father’s age”.
Daily Mail