Saturday, December 6, 2014

Loss of Y Chromosome Related to Smoking


Smoking is infamously linked to increasing the risk of many types of cancers. New studies show that smoking may be related to the loss of Y chromosomes in men. This could explain why men who smoke are at a bigger risk than women. It may also help scientist discover why men have shorter life spans than women. Male smokers are more likely to develop cancer outside of the respiratory track. The effect genetics may play in this difference could help scientist understand why men and women are at different risks.

Scientists have previously discovered the link between the loss of the Y chromosome in men and the increased rate of cancer. There are also studies showing that the Y chromosome may lead to tumor suppression which also explains why men may get cancer more often than women. Researchers did a study testing many factor that may cause the loss of the Y chromosome. Smoking was for to be one of these causes based on dosage and exposure.

They also discovered that men who had never smoked and men that have quit smoking have the same risk for losing their Y chromosome. This shows that even though smoking may increase the loss of the Y chromosome, it may be reversible. Researchers have yet to discover why there is a link between smoking and the loss of the Y chromosome, however, more studies are being done to further investigate.

1 comment:

  1. I have been seeing this on the news a lot lately. I hope this will encourage people to quit smoking because even though for years we have been warned about how smoking leads to the increased risk of cancer, people do not normally know about the increased loss of the Y chromosome.

    ReplyDelete