Ell as between different age groups. However, a significant negative associationEll as between different age

Ell as between different age groups. However, a significant negative association
Ell as between different age groups. However, a significant negative association was noted between sperm DNA damage and advancing paternal age. Men >40 y showed higher levels of sperm DNA damage (24.4 ?18.5 ) compared to younger men (<30 y; 16.7 ?11.2 ; p <0.05). Conclusions: Infertile men over the age of 40 y have a greater percentage of sperm DNA fragmentation compared to infertile men aged 40 y and below. Advanced paternal age (>40 y) may increase the risk of sperm DNA damage in infertile men. Keywords: Paternal age, Sperm DNA damage, Male infertility, Semen parametersBackground Many couples in developed countries are delaying parenthood for a variety of reasons [1-3]. Most believe that delayed parenthood has many advantages [4]. In England and Wales, 25 of live births in 1993 were to fathers older than 35 y but after 10 years, the percentage increased to 40 [5]. In the USA, birth rates for men older than 35 y have increased 40 since 1980 [2,6]. The effect of maternal ageing on fertilization and reproduction is well known [7]. Several studies have shown that women over 35 y have a higher risk of infertility, pregnancy complications, spontaneous abortion, congenital anomalies, and perinatal complications [2,8-10]. On the other hand, the effect of paternal age on semen* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute, Center for Reproductive Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the articlequality is controversial for a couple of reasons. First, there is no universal definition for advanced paternal ageing. The mean population age for paternal age is 21 y, and 40 y is the most frequently used cutoff to describe advanced paternal ageing [2]. Secondly, the literature is full of studies with conflicting ML240 chemical information results, especially for the most common parameters tested (volume, concentration, motility, total sperm count, morphology) [11-17]. A recent meta-analysis showed a consistent impact of advanced age on semen volume but the effect on the other semen parameters was inconsistent [18]. Advancing paternal age has a negative impact on semen volume [15,19,20], sperm motility [19,20], and normal morphology [19,21,22]. Sperm concentration did not show any correlation with male age [23,24] while another report showed an increase with age [25]. Advancing paternal age also has been associated with increased risk of genetic disease [26,27], schizophrenia?2014 Alshahrani et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original PubMed ID:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29072704 work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Alshahrani et al. Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology 2014, 12:103 http://www.rbej.com/content/12/1/Page 2 of[28], autism [26], and other complex disorders [29]. Several studies show that advanced paternal age increases the risk of spontaneous abortions [30,31], and increased risk of low birth weight [32]. De La Rochebrochard and Thonneau found that men who were older than 40 y were at high risk for infertility [33]. The same group also reported higher risk of infecundity and miscarriages in women 35 y a.