Tobacco mutates genes in semen

Science has long shown that smoking causes cancer, but so far science has shown that children will inherit genetic effects from a smoking father.

Canadian researchers have performed tests on mice and pointed out that cigarette smoke can cause changes in the sperm cell's DNA sequence, which can potentially be inherited to the offspring.

Male, whether animal or human, are constantly producing new amounts of semen from continuously dividing semen cells.

Yauk works with his colleagues in the Canadian Ministry of Health and McMaster School has studied the original semen cells of adult mice trapped in tobacco smoke for 6 to 12 weeks to consider changes in these. Repeated DNA fragments, called Ms6-hm. These are passages that do not contain any known genes.

The researchers allowed mice to inhale 2 cigarettes a day, which is equivalent to the average smoker of a drug addict based on the level of tobacco content in the blood.

Yauk and her colleagues found 1.4 times higher rates of Ms6-hm mutations in smoke inhaled mice than non-smoking mice for 6 weeks, and 1.7 times higher than those in the mice. Non-smoking mice for 12 weeks.

Ms. Yauk said: "This shows that the harmful effects of smoking are related to the length of smoking, so the longer you smoke, the more mutations will accumulate and the more likely you are to cause potential consequences. in the generation of children ".

The group also planned to study how mutated DNA works in male mice inhaling smoke directly; but in the future they will study the effects of secondhand smoke on male mice and inhaled female mice.

Minh Minh

According to Science Daily and Softpedia news, VNN