A dad’s exposure to stress leaves a lasting impression on his sperm, say researchers who have been investigating a never-before-seenepigenetic link to diseases such as anxiety and depression that can be passed from father to child. The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, shows that stress on pre-adolescent and adult male mice induced an […]
Medical advice given to sub-fertile men about smoking, alcohol, drugs and obesity is of little value, say UK medicos who contend that many so-called lifestyle “risks” appear to have little or no effect on sperm health. The researchers behind the new findings, from the Universities of Manchester and Sheffield, say that infertility/lifestyle advice should accordingly […]
In the first human study of its kind, University of Michigan (UM) researchers have found that the controversial plastics chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) appears to be linked to decreased sperm quality and concentration. Several previous studies have documented adverse effects of BPA on semen in rodents, but none are known to have reported similar results […]
The dramatic effect that a little-known omega-3 fatty acid has on sperm may have important implications for treating male infertility, say University of Illinois (UI) scientists. “In our experiment, we used ‘knockout’ mice that lacked the gene responsible for an enzyme important in making docosahexaenoic acid [DHA]. In the absence of DHA, male mice are […]
By manipulating testicular hormone levels, researchers from the Centre for Reproductive Biology at The Queen’s Medical Research Institute (Edinburgh, Scotland) were able to turn male fertility on and off, opening the door for “the pill” for men and new methods to boost male fertility by raising sperm counts. The technique relies on altering the androgenic […]
The difference in male and female longevity may be originating at the genome level, say Japanese researchers who suggest that the sperm genome has a detrimental effect on longevity in mammals. Their study, published in the journal Human Reproduction, found that female mice produced by using genetic material from two mothers but no father live […]
English scientists have discovered a unique DNA signature in human sperm which appears to act as a key that unlocks an egg’s fertility and triggers new life. Drs David Miller and David Iles from the University of Leeds, in collaboration with Dr Martin Brinkworth at the University of Bradford, have found that sperm writes a […]
Attractive males release fewer sperm per mating to increase the odds of producing offspring across a range of females, suggesting that couplings with attractive males may be less fruitful than those with unattractive ones. The new findings, published in American Naturalist, are based on mathematical models representing a range of male ejaculation strategies. The researchers, […]
Reporting their findings in the journalIntelligence, researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry in the UK say that men with higher intelligence tend to produce better quality sperm. This, say the researchers, suggests a closer-than-expected relationship between intelligence and evolutionary fitness. The intelligence/sperm analysis was conducted as a precursor to possible further study involving the associations […]
Obese men should consider losing weight if they want to have children, British researchers say, after finding that men with a higher body mass index (BMI) had lower volumes of seminal fluid and a higher proportion of abnormal sperm. The new findings were presented by Dr. A Ghiyath Shayeb, from the University of Aberdeen, at […]
