The causal mechanism underlying the well-established relation between advancing paternal age and schizophrenia is hypothesized to involve mutational..

Schizophr Bull. 2007 Aug 21; [Epub ahead of print]
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Aberrant Epigenetic Regulation Could Explain the Relationship of Paternal Age to Schizophrenia.
Perrin MC, Brown AS, Malaspina D.
2Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, New York University, New York, NY.
The causal mechanism underlying the well-established relation between advancing paternal age and schizophrenia is hypothesized to involve mutational errors during spermatogenesis that occur with increasing frequency as males age. Point mutations are well known to increase with advancing paternal age while other errors such as altered copy number in repeat DNA and chromosome breakage have in some cases also been associated with advancing paternal age. Dysregulation of epigenetic processes may also be an important mechanism underlying the association between paternal age and schizophrenia. Evidence suggests that advancing age as well as environmental exposures alter epigenetic regulation. Errors in epigenetic processes, such as parental imprinting can have serious effects on the offspring both pre- and postnatally and into adulthood. This article will discuss parental imprinting on the autosomal and X chromosomes and the alterations in epigenetic regulation that may lead to such errors.
PMID: 17712030 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]





Paternal Age and Preterm Birth.
Brief Reports Epidemiology. 16(2):259-262, March 2005.Zhu, Jin Liang *; Madsen, Kreesten M. *; Vestergaard, Mogens +; Basso, Olga *; Olsen, Jorn *
Abstract: Background: There is growing evidence that advanced paternal age can be a reproductive hazard.
Methods: We studied couples and their first children using nationwide registers in Denmark between 1980 and 1996. We restricted the analysis to mother's age 20-29 years. We estimated odds ratios (ORs) of preterm (<37 weeks gestation) and very preterm birth (<32 weeks) as a function of paternal age using logistic regression to adjust for potential confounding variables.
Results: The risk of preterm birth increased with paternal age, almost entirely resulting from an association for very preterm birth. Compared with fathers age 20-24 years, ORs for very preterm birth were 1.3 (age 25-29), 1.4 (age 35-39), 1.7 (age 40-44), 1.6 (age 45-49), and 2.1 (age 50+) (test for trend: P = 0.01).
Conclusions: Risk of very preterm birth increases among older fathers, perhaps as a result of a paternal placental effect.
(C) 2005 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.
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