THE ESSENTIAL
- Older men with high body mass index have more sperm irregularities
- Obesity has several important negative effects on fertility
While it is well established that older men have reduced reproductive health, a new study indicates that sperm aging would be exacerbated by BMI.
Indeed, the rise in body mass index (BMI), a simple measure of weight in relation to height, which is already a major risk factor for certain chronic diseases, can participate in the disruption of spermatozoa due to aging, according to researchers from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Utah in the United States.
“Aging may confer a combination of modest molecular changes that sensitize the testis to dysregulation, especially when aging is combined with additional factors such as obesity,” says co-lead author Bradley Cairns of the faculty. of Medicine from the University of Utah.
44,000 cells
To reach this conclusion, they profiled more than 44,000 cells obtained from autopsied testicular samples from four young men and eight older men.
Older donors were screened to ensure they had offspring when they were young adults, to ensure their fertility then.
All elderly donors with a BMI greater than 30, therefore being obese according to the definition ofOMS showed a very limited ability to develop sperm.
After studying these profiles, BMI therefore appeared to be a critical factor in older individuals.
Aging of the testicles
Another avenue for future research would be to determine whether the testicular cells of older, corpulent men display unique aging signatures or simply display accelerated aging.
Currently, it is not known whether diet, exercise, diabetes, or altered hormone production play a role in testicular aging. It would be interesting to determine at what age the dysregulation of testicular cells appears, and if and how it can be reversible.
This might lead to better medical guidance for older men and the potential treatment of age-related subfertility – subfertility is when fertility is impaired.
