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Human Longevity and Parental Age at Conception

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Sex and Longevity: Sexuality, Gender, Reproduction, Parenthood

Part of the book series: Research and Perspectives in Longevity ((RPL))

Abstract

Childbearing at older ages has become increasingly common in modern societies because of demographic changes (population aging), medical progress (e.g., in vitro fertilization in older women) and personal choice. Therefore, the following question has become particularly important: What will be the health and longevity of the children born to older parents? While the detriment effects of late reproduction on infant mortality and genetic diseases have been well documented, little is known about the long-term postponed effects of delayed parenting on the mortality and longevity of adult offspring. The purpose of this study is to fill the gap that exists in our knowledge about the possible postponed detrimental effects of late parenting.

Individuals born to older parents may suffer from a load of deleterious mutations. The human spontaneous mutation rate for DNA base substitutions is reported to be very high, presumably more than one new mutation per zygote (Crow 1997). The mutation rate is much higher in male sperm cells than in female ovaries and increases with paternal age due to the large number of cell divisions in the male germ line (Crow 1997). In this study we checked whether human longevity is affected by the increased mutation load expected for the progeny of older fathers. For this purpose the high quality data (more than 15,000 records) on European royal and noble families were collected, computerized and analyzed. The data on offspring life span were adjusted for historical trends and fluctuations in life expectancy of human birth cohorts. Also, to avoid bias in estimating the offspring life span, only extinct cohorts were analyzed (born in 1800–1899).

We found (after controlling for maternal age at reproduction, paternal and maternal longevity and sex-specific cohort life expectancy) that adult daughters (30+ years) born to older fathers (45–55 years) lived shorter lives, and for each additional year of paternal age the daughters lost about 0.5 ± 0.2 years of their life span. In contrast to daughters, the sons were not significantly affected by delayed paternal parenting. This result was also confirmed after taking into account additional confounding variables (nationality, birth order, cause of death and loss of parents before age 20) using multiple regression on nominal variables. Since only daughters inherit the paternal X chromosome, this sex-specific life span shortening for daughters born to older fathers might indicate that the genes affecting longevity and sensitive to mutation load are probably concentrated in the X chromosome.

The mutation theory of life span predicts that those individuals who have a low mutation rate in their somatic and germ cells will live longer lives and will be able to produce normal offspring even in old age. This prediction was tested in this study for the first time and proved to be correct. Daughters born to old fathers lived shorter lives but those daughters who were born to longer-lived fathers (81+ years) were not affected by the late paternal age at conception.

Another new finding of this study is that daughters born to particularly young fathers (below 25 years) also tended to live shorter lives. This finding is consistent with existing epidemiological data on the increased risk of congenital diseases and impaired behavioral performance among children born to particularly young fathers, as well as with similar animal studies. Thus, the age constraints for the donors of sperm cells (used for in vitro fertilization) should be carefully revised.

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Authors
  1. L. A. Gavrilov
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  2. N. S. Gavrilova
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Val d’Aurelle, Equipe INSERM Démographie et Santé, Parc Euromédecine, 34298 Montpellier cedex 5, France

    Jean-Marie Robine

  2. Department of Gerontology, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 6BE, UK

    Thomas B. L. Kirkwood

  3. Wolfson Research Centre, Newcastle General Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 6BE, UK

    Thomas B. L. Kirkwood

  4. Fondation IPSEN, 24, rue Erlanger, 75781 Paris Cedex 16, France

    Michel Allard

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Gavrilov, L.A., Gavrilova, N.S. (2001). Human Longevity and Parental Age at Conception. In: Robine, JM., Kirkwood, T.B.L., Allard, M. (eds) Sex and Longevity: Sexuality, Gender, Reproduction, Parenthood. Research and Perspectives in Longevity. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59558-5_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59558-5_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-64026-1

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