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Maternal non-Mendelian inheritance of a reduced lifespan? A hypothesis

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Abstract

Purpose

A negative correlation exists between advanced maternal age and reproduction. Current data suggest that this correlation is due to a decline in oocyte quality with respect to female age. Since a new individual is derived from the fusion of a single sperm and egg, we tested whether the quality of this material could influence the long-term physiological health of offspring, by examining whether a link between parental age and lifespan of offspring exists.

Methods

We requested a search from the Swedish demographic database POPUM 3 maintained by the University of Umeå, Sweden between years 1700 and 1900. Parameters requested included mothers’ and fathers’ age at gestation, the lifespan of the children, cause of death of children and the region of birth.

Results

Complete data was obtained for 30,512 children born to 12,725 mothers and fathers. Kaplan-Meier estimators demonstrated a strong relationship between mother’s age at gestation and the longevity of offspring. Extrinsic factors such as century of birth also had an effect on the data. The forward stepwise procedure on Cox’s model of proportional hazards suggested that most significant intrinsic factors were mother’s lifespan and mother’s age at gestation.

Conclusions

These data demonstrate that intrinsic and extrinsic factors influence the lifespan of children. Among intrinsic factors, mother’s lifespan and age at gestation had a significant influence on the data. The influence of intrinsic factors remained significant despite a strong extrinsic influence. We suggest that the influence of the mother on the lifespan of offspring is due to extra-genomic factors.

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Acknowledgements

This work was self-funded. We thank Erik Törnlund and staff of the Demografiska Databasen, Umeå Universitet, S-901 87 Umeå, Sweden for their excellent database. We also thank Vincenzo Monfrecola for his help in the preparation of the work.

Conflicts of interest

We declare that no conflicts of interest are present.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Reproduction and Advanced Technology, St. Georges House, 3-5 Pepys Road, London, SW20 8NJ, UK

    Martin Wilding

  2. Centro Fecondazione Assistita, Clinica Villa del Sole, Via Manzoni 15, 80122, Naples, Italy

    Gianfranco Coppola, Loredana Di Matteo & Brian Dale

  3. IMM, CNR, Via Pietro Castellino, 80100, Naples, Italy

    Francesco De Icco & Laura Arenare

  4. Facolta di Medicina e Chirurgia, II Università degli Studi di Napoli, Via Costantinopoli, 16, 80100, Naples, Italy

    Loredana Di Matteo

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  1. Martin Wilding
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  2. Gianfranco Coppola
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  3. Francesco De Icco
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  4. Laura Arenare
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  5. Loredana Di Matteo
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  6. Brian Dale
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Correspondence to Martin Wilding.

Additional information

Capsule A demographic database shows a correlation between parental age and longevity of children in humans.

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Wilding, M., Coppola, G., De Icco, F. et al. Maternal non-Mendelian inheritance of a reduced lifespan? A hypothesis. J Assist Reprod Genet 31, 637–643 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-014-0222-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-014-0222-3

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