By: Richard Huang
On July 15th, a published paper in the journal Science tested their
male mice and found out that there is an association between the
loss of Y chromosomes and heart issues.
The study shows that as the number of Y chromosomes decreases in
the blood cells of those genetically engineered mice, more scar
tissues are built around the heart, which leads to heart failure and
shortened lifespan. This cause-and-effect relationship suggests the
notion that humans may experience the same effect as the mice have.
In recent years, research has shown that an increasing number of
chronic diseases (such as heart disease and cancer) are linked to the
loss of Y chromosomes, including the one previously mentioned,
which used data from a large genetic study of the British population.
“The loss of Y could even account for some of the difference
between the life spans of men and women,” said the authors of the
Science study.
“Human patients with loss of chromosome Y in their blood were
also at greater risk of cardiac pathology, supporting the clinical
relevance of these findings,” the new study said.
Other researchers who did not contribute to this article were amazed
by their result.
“The authors really nailed it here,” said Dr. Ross Levine, the deputy
physician in chief for translational research at Memorial Sloan
Kettering Cancer Center. “It’s super important work.”
Lars Forsberg, a researcher at Uppsala University, was inspired by a
former professor to conduct this new research. Dr. Forsberg used to
believe that the Y chromosome was “pretty much a genetic
wasteland.”
At least 40 percent of the males at 70 years of age have lost some of
their Y chromosomes, and 57 percent of the men’s population have
lost some of it by the age of 93.
Unfortunately, there is no way to reduce the risk of this loss except
to stop smoking. The loss of Y chromosomes is also unrelated to the
decrease of testosterone level as male bodies age, so taking
testosterone supplements will have no effect on the risk of Y
chromosome loss.
Dr. Forsberg then went back to his computer and reviewed data on
1,153 aging men in a large Swedish study, the Uppsala Longitudinal
Study of Aging Men.
“I had the data in a few hours and I was like, ‘Wow,’” Dr. Forsberg
said. “I saw that men with loss of Y in a large proportion of their
blood cells survived only half as long, 5.5 years versus 11.1 years.”
“You can imagine my surprise,” he said. “Of course I redid
everything.”
His finding then helped him publish a paper in the journal Nature
Genetics in 2014 and the new paper three days ago.
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