For men, the loss of Y chromosomes is a natural and expected occurrence. It’s simply a component of aging, similar to greying hair and wrinkling skin. It isn’t linked to the arrival of diseases…or so scientists thought. After performing a study on male mice, researchers are viewing the consequences of Y chromosome loss in a new light.
Mice and humans have very similar sets of genes. Out of the approximately 4,000 genes that have been discovered, less than 10 are unique to one species but not the other. In a study where genetically engineered male mice were deprived of their Y chromosomes, scientists noticed scar tissue building up and heart failure. Scientists concluded that the same thing could happen in humans.
After gaining this new information, many people have thought about how this could account for the differences in life spans for men and women. Women have two X chromosomes instead of one X and one Y, like men do. Approximately 40% of men lose the Y chromosome from some of their blood cells by age 70, and 57% have lost some of it by age 93. The destruction of Y chromosomes is referred to as a ‘mosaic loss of Y’, where the Y chromosome disintegrates from the blood cells during cell division.
“I had the data in a few hours and I was like, ‘Wow,’” said Dr. Lars Forsberg, a researcher from Uppsala University. “I saw that men with loss of Y in a large proportion of their blood cells survived only half as long…” Forsberg reported his findings in the 2014 Nature Genetics journal and discussed his experiments with Dr. Kenneth Walsh. He then founded Cray Innovation, a company aiming to conduct tests on humans regarding the loss of Y chromosomes.
After hearing about the health risks related to losing Y chromosomes, many are raising their concern about losing X as well. However, none are visible in studies so far. People are still unsure how to prevent the rapid loss of Y chromosomes. Some researchers believe that the problem may be related to CHIP: a genetic blood cell mutation that increases with age. It was also found that blocking the molecule TGF-beta could prevent scarring and failure of the heart.
Despite what companies say, drugs that block TGF-beta don’t directly prove to be effective in people who are losing their Y chromosomes. Companies do this for monetary purposes, which may bother scientists. “The over-interpretation of these data for monetary purposes worries me deeply,” said researcher Dr. Stephen Chanock. Scientists are still doing research and working on drugs that can efficiently and effectively hinder Y chromosome loss.
Link: https://www.genome.gov/10001345/importance-of-mouse-genome
Mice and humans have very similar sets of genes. Out of the approximately 4,000 genes that have been discovered, less than 10 are unique to one species but not the other. In a study where genetically engineered male mice were deprived of their Y chromosomes, scientists noticed scar tissue building up and heart failure. Scientists concluded that the same thing could happen in humans.
After gaining this new information, many people have thought about how this could account for the differences in life spans for men and women. Women have two X chromosomes instead of one X and one Y, like men do. Approximately 40% of men lose the Y chromosome from some of their blood cells by age 70, and 57% have lost some of it by age 93. The destruction of Y chromosomes is referred to as a ‘mosaic loss of Y’, where the Y chromosome disintegrates from the blood cells during cell division.
“I had the data in a few hours and I was like, ‘Wow,’” said Dr. Lars Forsberg, a researcher from Uppsala University. “I saw that men with loss of Y in a large proportion of their blood cells survived only half as long…” Forsberg reported his findings in the 2014 Nature Genetics journal and discussed his experiments with Dr. Kenneth Walsh. He then founded Cray Innovation, a company aiming to conduct tests on humans regarding the loss of Y chromosomes.
After hearing about the health risks related to losing Y chromosomes, many are raising their concern about losing X as well. However, none are visible in studies so far. People are still unsure how to prevent the rapid loss of Y chromosomes. Some researchers believe that the problem may be related to CHIP: a genetic blood cell mutation that increases with age. It was also found that blocking the molecule TGF-beta could prevent scarring and failure of the heart.
Despite what companies say, drugs that block TGF-beta don’t directly prove to be effective in people who are losing their Y chromosomes. Companies do this for monetary purposes, which may bother scientists. “The over-interpretation of these data for monetary purposes worries me deeply,” said researcher Dr. Stephen Chanock. Scientists are still doing research and working on drugs that can efficiently and effectively hinder Y chromosome loss.
Link: https://www.genome.gov/10001345/importance-of-mouse-genome
