"However, parents-to-be should recognize that younger adulthood is the best time for both sexes to have children."

Dr. Simeon Margolis, a professor of both medicine and biological chemistry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.


"DNA damage in sperm is one probable explanation for the genetic abnormalities associated with fatherhood at an older age. The testicular cells that give rise to sperm divide every 16 days; this means that the cells will have split about 840 times by age 50, and with each cell division the chance increases for errors in the sperm's DNA. Examination of sperm from men ages 22 to 80 showed a progressive increase with age in the number of broken DNA strands and other genetic abnormalities"

Don't Ignore That Selfish Interests Deny 55 Years of Research on the problems of offspring of older fathers and maternal grandfathers

The 20s to early 30s are the years to aim for to father babies for their welfare. Financial security does not buy health or happiness for your children.

Dr. Harry Fisch says fertility doctors are ignoring a growing body of scientific evidence, including two large studies that have found an association between older paternal age and an increased incidence of schizophrenia in children. One, done by the New York State Psychiatric Institute, found a doubling of schizophrenia in children of fathers who were aged 45 to 49 and a tripling of the rate in children whose fathers were over 50; the mother's age had no effect.

Fisch and others analyzed thousands of births in a New York state study that found older fathers added to the risk of Down syndrome in children if the mothers were over 35, and concluded the father's age was a factor in 50 percent of the Down syndrome babies born to women over 40. In younger women, the study found, the father's age had no effect.

http://www.4-men.org/sperm/fatherhood-late-in-life.html

Max was born when I was 46.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/15/AR2007061502053_pf.html


Max was born when I was 46. When he was 2, the doctors were all but certain that he was, as they euphemistically say, "on the spectrum" for autism -- meaning somewhere on the milder side of the group of disorders that fall under the autism umbrella. At 2, he didn't speak -- not even "Da-Da" or "Ma-Ma" or "Please step out of the way, I am trying to watch 'The Wiggles,' thank you" (which, if he could have talked, was probably the statement he would have started with). He wouldn't make eye contact and he spent hours lying on the floor, rolling a toy car back and forth in front of his face. Quite an agreeable activity, I must say, having tried it a few times, but put it all together and, our advisers told us, it probably spelled Asperger's disorder, the mildest form of autism. Friends tried to reassure us. "Einstein didn't talk until he was 3!" they offered, unaware that Einstein, along with Andy Warhol and Andy Kaufman and other late talkers, most likely had Asperger's.

IVF ART A negative correlation identified between paternal age and art outcome: is there a male biological clock ticking?

doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2007.07.368
Copyright © 2007 American Society for Reproductive Medicine Published by Elsevier Inc.

Poster presentations
A negative correlation identified between paternal age and art outcome: is there a male biological clock ticking?

M. Lunaa, J. Barritta, N. Bar-Chamaa, A.B. Coppermana, T. Mukherjeea and L. Grunfelda
aReproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York; Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY
P-13. Available online 9 September 2007.




Supported by: None.





http://www.slate.com/id/2109131/


Yet nagging concerns have prompted a flurry of new studies, a number of which were presented at the ASRM conference. Most are disturbing in some way; none seem conclusive; a few are contradictory. In what will probably emerge as one of the more significant, Mary Croughan of the University of California, San Francisco, has received that rare thing in this field—federal funding—to track the development of IVF children and compare it to a cohort group of naturally conceived children. At work for more than a year now, Croughan presented preliminary research that showed an increased risk of certain birth defects, cognitive delays, and behavioral problems among IVF children; to date, her only cases of ADD and autism are in the IVF kids.

Why Utah?

High rates of autism alarming
U. study notes dramatic jump: 1 in 133 Utah kids
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660194109,00.html
By Lois M. Collins
Deseret Morning News
Published: Friday, Feb. 9, 2007 12:11 a.m. MST
0 comments RELATED STORIES | E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - Autism in Utah
Utah has one of the highest autism rates in a 14-state study — 1 in every 133 children. And the rate is higher still for boys, at 1 in 79, according to University of Utah researchers.
"With numbers like this, I think it qualifies as an urgent public health concern," said Judith Zimmerman, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the U.

The study, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, concluded that Utah's autism rate is 20 times higher than it was two decades ago. The results were released Thursday.

Overall, Utah ranks third in terms of prevalence based on population, with a rate of 7.5 children per 1,000, placing it about 12 percent higher than the national average, said Zimmerman. New Jersey had the highest rate, at 1 in 94, while Alabama had the lowest rate. Among boys, Utah is No. 2.

Autism is characterized by impaired social, communicative and behavioral development. It varies in severity.

The cause has long been debated, with genetics, environment, even childhood vaccines being blamed by some. The CDC says it's likely there are multiple causes "due to complex interaction of genetic and environmental factors." For most cases, it adds, the cause is not known although it tends to occur more frequently than expected with certain other medical conditions, including Fragile X syndrome, tuberous sclerosis, congenital rubella and untreated phenylketonuria (PKU).


Story continues below
Utah had the most striking difference in the rates of autism among males vs. females, at 7 to 1. The researchers said they found no difference in the three counties examined — Davis, Salt Lake and Utah — in terms of prevalence.
Zimmerman said Utah's numbers may be slightly higher simply because Utahns are good bookkeepers. "We had great access to records," she said.

The Utah numbers, while alarming, also reflect progress, showing better diagnosis and referral of milder cases, said Dr. William McMahon, director of the Utah Autism Research Program at the U. and co-principal investigator for Utah's study.

"However, our understanding of autism can be compared to medical understanding of fever in the 18th century. While we recognize the symptoms of autism, we have yet to discover the cause and translate that knowledge into cure and prevention," he said in a news release about the research.

The study also looked at intellectual disability, but those results are not yet published. It did show, though, that one-third of the Utah children with autism also have some cognitive impairment.

Utah leads in another way: More Utah children with autism have a history of regression and loss of skills — one-third. That number was higher than in all the other states studied.

Zimmerman said goals for the study included measuring the incidence, looking at the scope of autism and examining some of the characteristics of cases. They hope also to identify potential risk factors and causes and have already linked the data to some prenatal issues identified on birth certificates in Utah.

They found, for instance, a higher ratio of breech births, C-sections and newborns who required more than 30 minutes of assisted ventilation among children with autism. "We could use information like that to determine a target population to screen," she said.

X- Chromosome and Autism etc.

Sex chromosome clue to autism
17:46 09 September 2003
NewScientist.com news service

A small group of genes on the X chromosome regulate the brain's "threat-detector" and might explain the high prevalence of autism among males, researchers have discovered.

Some people lacking these genes have problems recognising fear in another person's face, a common trait in autism. They also have abnormal amygdalas - a brain area known as the "fear centre".

The results provide a possible genetic mechanism for the sex bias of autism. Other recent research has identified a gene in the same region of the X chromosome that correlates with the severity of autism. However, confirmation of this explanation of autism's sex bias is still far off - researchers have not yet determined which specific gene or genes are responsible and have not looked at the function of these genes in autistic people.

Previous research suggests autism has a genetic basis, but so far, no single gene has been located that causes the disease in the general population. Autism is 10 times more prevalent among boys than girls, suggesting that a genetic factor may be sex-linked.

"The answer must lie in the sex chromosome," said David Skuse, from the Institute of Child Health in London, speaking at the British Association Festival of Science in Salford, near Manchester, UK, on Tuesday.

Double X
The X chromosome carries many genes that are vital for a wide range of physiological functions. Women have two X chromosomes while men have an X and a Y. Because almost all women have two copies of X chromosome genes, their cells turn off, or inactivate, one copy.

However, not all X-linked genes undergo this inactivation, meaning that women could have higher levels of some gene products in their cells. Skuse suggests it is these "dosage-sensitive" genes that are responsible for the sex differences in autism.

Skuse and his colleagues studied women with only one X chromosome, a condition known as Turner's syndrome. These women are susceptible to problems with X-linked genes just like men and are much more likely to develop autism than unaffected people.

In fact, both autistic people and women with Turner's syndrome share a common trait - they avoid eye contact and have trouble reading fear in another person's facial expression. These problems can also be observed in the brain, says Skuse, as both groups show abnormalities in the function of the amygdala and its cortical connections.

The team narrowed down the section of the X chromosome responsible for these problems by looking for women missing just a small part of one of their Xs, but who also have trouble recognising fear. This left three or four gene candidates and Skuse hopes that, once they identify a specific gene, they will be able to look directly at its function.

Journal reference: Brain (vol 126, p 1)

20s Are The Prime Years for male reproduction!

Excerpts from an article that everyone should read and take to heart:


Male Health: The Long ShotFrom puberty on, reproductive health and the viability of sperm continue to evolve.


By:Mark Teich


Teens
Until age 13 or 14, sperm is not fully formed, increasing the risk of infertility or birth defects. Sperm may be extremely healthy in older teens, who are famous for their potency. But risky teen behavior may put sperm at risk.
20s
These are prime years for male reproduction. Men have the maximum amount of mature sperm cells and the least DNA damage. The risk of producing birth defects or causing other problems in offspring is as low as it ever will be.
30s
Testosterone levels start to decline at age 30, bringing a decrease in potency. By 32-34, fertility begins to fall. Men who are 35 or older are twice as likely to be infertile as men under age 25. The mid-thirties also bring a significant increase in sperm DNA damage and thus an increased risk of producing birth defects. One in 99 fathers ages 30-35 sire children with schizophrenia versus one in 141 for fathers under age 25.
40s
The risk of schizophrenia doubles in children of fathers in their late forties compared with children of fathers under age 25. Men 40 and older are nearly six times more likely to have offspring with autism than men younger than 30.
50s
By age 50, the DNA cells that create sperm have gone through more than 800 rounds of division and replication, vastly decreasing the quality of sperm and increasing the chances of mutation and birth defects. The risk of schizophrenia almost triples for children of fathers 50 and older; one in 47 fathers sires a child with the condition..............

Denmark Studied Autism Risk - Risk Factors Listed, Autoimmune Disorders Connection Not Studied in this research

1: J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2005 Sep;46(9):963-71.
Links
Effects of familial risk factors and place of birth on the risk of autism: a nationwide register-based study.
Lauritsen MB, Pedersen CB, Mortensen PB.
Centre for Basic Psychiatric Research, Psychiatric Hospital in Aarhus, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark. mbl@psykiatri.aaa.dk
BACKGROUND: The etiology of autism is unknown. A strong genetic component has been detected but non-genetic factors may also be involved in the etiology. METHODS: We used data from the Danish Psychiatric Central Register and the Danish Civil Registration System to study some risk factors of autism, including place of birth, parental place of birth, parental age, family history of psychiatric disorders, and paternal identity. RESULTS: A total of 943,664 children younger than ten years were followed from 1994 to 2001; of those, 818 children developed autism. The highest risks of autism were found in siblings of children with autism, or Asperger's syndrome and other pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs), with relative risks of 22 and 13, respectively. The relative risk of autism in the child was about twice as high if the mother had been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. The risk of autism was associated with increasing degree of urbanisation of the child's place of birth and with increasing paternal, but not maternal, age. An increased relative risk of 1.4 was found if the mother was born outside Europe, and in children of parents who were born in different countries. CONCLUSIONS: The highest risk of autism was found in families with a history of autism, or Asperger's syndrome and other PDDs in siblings, supporting the commonly accepted knowledge that genetic factors are involved in the etiology of autism.
PMID: 16108999 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Not Surprising At All That Genetic Rearrangement Frequently Found In Sperm

It is time to know that the father's age has had the major role in the creation new (non-familial) genetic disorders. There are unstable regions in the genome.


http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-12/wtsi-msg112807.php This is expected Not UNEXPECTED! There are many, many studies showing that sperm mutations/genetic disorders increase with the man's age Mutant sperm guide clinicians to new diseases Disease, DNA, deletions and duplications in human sperm Research published today in Nature Genetics shows that some rearrangements of the human genome occur more frequently than previously thought. The work is likely to lead to new identification of genes involved in disease and to improve diagnosis of genomic disease. The scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute looked at four unstable regions in the genome where rearrangements cause genetic diseases, so-called 'genomic disorders', and found that some of these rearrangements were found in sperm much more frequently than expected.


It has been known since 1955 that older fathers have more genetically damaged offspring!

Dolores Malaspina MD :





"New point mutations in humans are introduced through the male line," says Dolores Malaspina, MD, professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Furthermore, she adds, the number of mutations in sperm increases as men age.



De Novo Point Mutations and Autism
.Arthur L. Beaudet, M.D.The two studies1, 2 greatly strengthen the growing awareness that a substantial fraction of autism is caused by genomic rearrangements. Particularly in the case of deletions, loss-of-function point mutations in genes in these regions are likely to be important as well. Most of these are de novo mutations not present in the parents. The children with identifiable genetic abnormalities are often in the syndromic group, and the sex ratio for these individuals tends to be 1:1, except for X-linked disorders6, 7.De novo point mutations in such genes could explain the advanced paternal age association that has been reported for autism13. There is no evidence, however, that the risk of a de novo CNV is related to the age of either parent.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Point MutationA point mutation is a simple change in one base of the gene sequence. This is equivalent to changing one letter in a sentence, such as this example, where we change the 'c' in cat to an 'h':OriginalThe fat cat ate the wee rat.Point Mutation The fat hat ate the wee rat.








.

Are the varied causes of Non-Familial Autism Really Unknown?

-What about a warning that advancing paternal age is a major cause in non-familial cases along with a family history of autoimmune disorders. Vaccinations?

See abstracts and articles since 1970 and even from 1954 in the blog.


What is the relationship with older paternal age and problems with imprinting?

JAMA -- Biological Clock Ticks for Men, Too: Genetic Defects ...
Abnormal expression of paternally imprinted genes is another possible mechanism linking advancing paternal age and offspring health, suggests Malaspina. ...jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/291/14/1683 -


Finally, we examined if paternal age was related to the risk for autism in our cohort. We found very strong effects of advancing paternal age on the risk for autism and related pervasive developmental disorders (Reichenberg et al., in press). Compared to the offspring of fathers aged 30 years or younger, the risk was tripled for offspring of fathers in their forties and was increased fivefold when paternal age was >50 years. Together, these studies provide strong and convergent support for the hypothesis that later paternal age can influence neural functioning