From an E Mail January 22, 2009

Dear Mrs. Feldman,
Really, for a man, 25-30 years are the fine age. That is a notion not enough spread in Occident.
Warmly,
Maurice Auroux



Reproduction, Vol. 4, No. 7, pp. 794-797, 1989
© 1989 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology

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other


Paternal age and mental functions of progeny in man
Maurice R. Auroux1, Marie J. Mayaux2, Marie L. Guihard-Moscato2, Maurice Fromantin3, Jean Barthe3 and Daniel Schwartz2
2INSERM U 292, Santé Publique. Epidémiologie, Reproduction Humaine, CHU Bicêtre 94271 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre 3Ministère de la Défense, Inspection Technique des Services Médicaux de 1‘Hygiène et de I’Epidémiologie dans les Armées, Hôpital du Val de Grace 75230 Paris, France Biologie de la Reproduction et du Développement, CHU Bicêtre 94271 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre

Correspondence: 1To whom correspondence should be addressed

The effects of maternal age on the quality of offspring are well known. Those due to the father's age are less obvious, apart from the role of increasing paternal age in the onset of many dominant autosomal disorders. But an experimental model has demonstrated that, in rats, increasing paternal age, without any other anomalies, might produce a decreased learning capacity in progeny. The object of the epidemiological investigation presented here was to verify whether this effect might also occur in man. The study involved the distribution of scores obtained in psychometric tests by 18-year-old male subjects, according to their father’s age at the time of their birth. This distribution indicated not only that increasing paternal age is accompanied by effects similar to those observed in animals, but also that very young paternal age was also related to these effects. Thus, the curve of such scores produced an inverted U-shape, with maximum scores obtained when the father was about thirty years of age. Maternal age did not appear to play a part in this event. These results pose the problem of identifying genetic and/or psychosocial factors which might have an impact on the quality of the conceptus.


Key words: paternal age/spermatogenesis/mental functions in adult male progeny/epidemiological study in man


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MOREOVER IN ANIMAL AND IN MAN, PATERNAL AGEING SEEMS RESPONSIBLE FOR A GRADUAL LOWERING IN THE LEVEL OF PROGENY CEREBRAL FUNCTIONS

1: Contracept Fertil Sex. 1993 May;21(5):382-5. Links
[Age of the father and development][Article in French]
Auroux M.
Biologie de la Reproduction et du Developpement, CHU Bicetre.

Testicular ageing affects at the same time the individual and his lineage. In the individual, vascular, endocrine, blood testis barrier and Sertoli cells changes because of age lead a decrease of spermatozoa number and an alteration in their form and motility. These changes lead a gradual decrease of fertility. In the progeny, paternal ageing is responsible for new dominant autosomic mutations which themselves cause different malformations, as achondroplasia, Apert or Recklinghausen disease, Marfan Syndrome etc. and perhaps for certain chromosome X linked recessive mutations as Duchenne myopathy or hemophily A. Moreover, in animal and man, paternal ageing seems responsible for a gradual lowering in the level of progeny cerebral functions. In man, very youthful age is also related to these effects. Thus, the curve corresponding to this phenomenon presents an inverted U-Shape, of which the top corresponds to about thirty years of paternal age. Maternal age does not appear to play a part in this event. On the whole, these results pose the problem of the optimum age for fatherhood.

PMID: 7920923 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE