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Hum. Reprod. Advance Access published online on October 19, 2006
Human Reproduction, doi:10.1093/humrep/del338
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received March 2, 2006
Revised July 12, 2006
Accepted July 24, 2006

Article

The effects of male age on sperm DNA damage in healthy non-smokers

T.E. Schmid 1, B. Eskenazi 2, A. Baumgartner 3, F. Marchetti 4, S. Young 2, R. Weldon 2, D. Anderson 5, and A.J. Wyrobek 4 *

1 Biosciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore; School of Public Health, University of California in Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA; Present address: Life Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
2 School of Public Health, University of California in Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
3 Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK; Present address: Life Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
4 Biosciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore; Present address: Life Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
5 Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
A.J. Wyrobek, E-mail: ajwyrobek{at}lbl.gov


  Abstract

BACKGROUND: The trend for men to have children at older age raises concerns that advancing age may increase the production of genetically defective sperm, increasing the risks of transmitting germ-line mutations. METHODS: We investigated the associations between male age and sperm DNA damage and the influence of several lifestyle factors in a healthy non-clinical group of 80 non-smokers (mean age: 46.4 years, range: 22-80 years) with no known fertility problems using the sperm Comet analyses. RESULTS: The average percentage of DNA that migrated out of the sperm nucleus under alkaline electrophoresis increased with age (0.18% per year, P = 0.006), but there was no age association for damage measured under neutral conditions (P = 0.7). Men who consumed >3 cups coffee per day had ~20% higher percentage tail DNA under neutral but not alkaline conditions compared with men who consumed no caffeine (P = 0.005). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that (i) older men have increased sperm DNA damage associated with alkali-labile sites or single-strand DNA breaks and (ii) independent of age, men with substantial daily caffeine consumption have increased sperm DNA damage associated with double-strand DNA breaks. DNA damage in sperm can be converted to chromosomal aberrations and gene mutations after fertilization, increasing the risks of developmental defects and genetic diseases among offspring.

Keywords: ageing/caffeine/Comet/DNA damage/sperm.
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