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Monday, April 28, 2014
"Y'd" You Have To Go?-Loss of Y Sex Chromosome in Men Contributing Factor in Cancer and Lower Life Expectany
The Y chromosome in humans is widely known to be one of the sex chromosomes that determines the physical sex of a person. A Y chromosome translates to a physically male human, and males have been found to have a lower life expectancy. Researchers at Uppsala University have recently found that loss of the Y chromosome in aging men may be to blame. They took blood samples from over 1600 elderly men and found that the most common abnormality was loss of Y chromosomes in a large number of their white blood cells. The study went on for several years to follow the lives of the men, and those who had lost a large number of Y chromosomes had shorter lives, regardless of how they died. Those men also had a higher risk of getting cancer. The Y chromosome is sometimes believed to be insignificant beyond sex determination and sperm production, but it also has an important tumor suppression role. Hopefully, future research will make it possible to use the Y chromosome to predict the risk a man has for developing cancer.
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Being that I'm a male, this article is pretty shocking. Linking the Y chromosome to shorter life spans is nothing but bad news. It's surprising that a decrease in what is believed to be a sex determining gene could lead to a shorter life. I would think the X chromosomes decrease just as much in women but being able to study the Y chromosome selectively could possibly skew information. Further research on this subject seems necessary if this study is in fact accurate.
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