Effects of stress on sperm

Children of stressed fathers are at greater risk of developing PTSD and depression, according to a new study. Researchers found life's pressures can change the DNA of a man's sperm - leading to brain development changes in his yet unborn baby. It's widely known that a mother's environment during pregnancy, including factors such as poor diet, stress and infection, can negatively impact the offspring.

Learning how a father's behavior and environment can impact his child's development could lead to the detection and prevention of many mental health disorders. Researchers have known for years that stress can increase the risk of mental disorders,' Dr Tracy Bale, professor of neuroscience at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, told Daily Mail Online. 'What’s interesting here is that we are finding intergenerational effects.'

Researchers, led by Dr Bale, conducted a mice experiment to examine how a father's lifestyle impacts his children. Previously, the team has found male mice experiencing chronic periods of mild stress passed down genetic coding for a less effective hormonal response to stress in children. Three major hormones are released by the nervous system when the body is under stress. These are adrenaline, cortisol and norepinephrine. Collectively, these hormones send human bodies into ''fight''mode, which is important to the body's ability to cope with the effects of stress.

Stress resulted in changes in sperms genetic material known as microRNA, which plays a key role in which genes become functional proteins. These changes in stress reactivity have been linked to some mental disorders, including depression and PTSD.

In the new study, presented at the 2018 AAAS annual meeting in Austin, Texas, Dr Bale and her colleagues unraveled new details about the microRNA changes in the sperm. The caput epididymis, the structure where sperm matures, release vesicles which contain microRNA that can fuse with sperm to change its cargo delivered to the egg. When males mice were stressed, the caput epididymis responded by altering the content of these vesicles.

This suggests even mild environmental stress, such as workplace stress, can have a significant impact on the development and potentially the health of future offspring. This is through a process known as epigenetics where DNA is changed through lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise - or even stress. Scientists have known a mother's environment during pregnancy can damage a fetus by diet, stress or infection affecting the expression of certain genes in the same way.

Father's stress can affect offspring development by altering important aspects of his sperm. Her previous studies on the placenta have revealed novel sex differences during pregnancy that may predict increased pre-natal risk for neurodevelopmental disorders in males. Historically, most research on how a parent's lifestyle, behavior and environment can affect their children has focused on the mother. But scientists have recently been paying increasing attention to how a father's health impacts his children.
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Acetaminophen in pregnancy may cause language delays

According to new study, children whose mothers used acetaminophen-known as Tylenol early in pregnancy may have an increased risk of language delays. Researchers found that when pregnant women used the painkiller during the first trimester, their daughters were more likely to have language delays, such link was not  seen among boys.

A "language delay" meant the child was using fewer than 50 words, according to the report. This medication should probably be used only with caution, and limited to absolute need," said Christina Chambers, a pediatrics professor at the University of California, San Diego. Chambers, who also co-directs the university's Center for Better Beginnings.

Doctors consider its pain and fever reliever of choice during pregnancy. That's because nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs-including aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen haverisks, particularly later in pregnancy, according to the Organization of Teratology Information Specialists. The group tracks research on medication and other exposures during pregnancy.

There is no good alternative to acetaminophen, evidence is growing that there can be risks from taking the drug during pregnancy, especially more than occasionally. One recent study found that when women used acetaminophen for more than a month during pregnancy, their children had a higher risk of being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD.

It's not clear that the drug causes developmental problems, but researchers have speculated that it might interfere with hormones that are important in fetal brain development. Acetaminophen is hormonally active, any hormonal effects might affect girls and boys differently. The findings are based on Swedish women who enrolled in a long-term health study during their first trimester. Overall, 59 percent said they'd taken acetaminophen since becoming pregnant.

Their children had their language development assessed at 30 months of age. Roughly 4 percent of girls and 13 percent of boys were found to have a delay. Among girls, the study found, the risk of language delay rose in accordance with mothers' prenatal acetaminophen use. If a pregnant woman had taken more than six tablets in the first trimester, her daughter's risk of language delay was about six times higher, versus girls whose mothers did not use the drug.
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Eat fish to avoid schizophrenia

According to new research, pregnant women should eat more fish for proper development of their children. Eating seafood during pregnancy improves brain development. Children born to mothers who consumed 400g of oily fish each week while they were expecting had higher language and communication skills.

However, the researchers warned pregnant women to avoid eating anymore than this amount due to the potential effects of mercury. For the new study, researchers obtained blood samples from a small group of  women in week 17 of gestation. Prenatal mercury exposure was also calculated by asking the women to report what they consumed halfway through their pregnancy.

Mothers then reported children's language and communications skills at age five by filling out a questionnaire. Resaerchers then performed a statistical analysis to assess the impact of mercury. For mothers who ate less than 400g of seafood a week there were clear benefits, such children performed significantly better on the speech and language test, the researchers found.
maternal seafood intake during pregnancy was positively associated with the language and communication scales.

The NHS encourages pregnant women to eat fish because of the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids. However, they should avoid swordfish, shark and marlin because of high mercury levels. Consumption of tuna, which contains moderate levels of mercury, should be limited to two steaks a week or four cans, the NHS says.Pregnant women should also eat noT more than two portions a week of oily fish such as mackerel, sardines or salmon.
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RNA modification and brain development

A chemical tag added to RNA during embryonic development regulates how the early brain grows, when this development goes wrong, it may cause psychiatric disorders in people. Researchers used animal models and mini-brains, made from human stem cells to relate their findings to conditions found in people.

Researchers have discovered chemical modifications to messenger RNA mRNA across the genome at certain sites and found that these changes are dynamic- a specific chemical group is added and taken off by enzymes in a regular, pattern. The chemical group studied in the Cell paper, m6A, is the most prevalent modification to mRNA in human cells.

The current thinking is that a tightly controlled molecular process guides the complicated development of the brain before birth and the process relies on a precise sequence of genes being turned on and off. However, even subtle mistakes in this process can become serious issue. The classic view of this control is that DNA codes for RNA, guiding which proteins will be made by cells. However, mRNA can be modified along the way so that it can produce proteins with many variations.

A new field called epitranscriptomics was discovered during the research. The Cell paper is the first study of epitranscriptomics in the embryonic mammalian brain, and the key is m6A, a marker for molecules bound for disposal within the cell. Normally, m6A-tagged mRNAs are related to such processes as cell replication and neuron differentiation, and m6A-tagging promotes their decay after they are no longer needed.

If m6A is not added on the correct time schedule to a garbage-bound molecule, the developmental train goes down the wrong tracks because developing brain cells get stuck at an earlier stage because the m6A cues for taking out the cellular trash are misread or not read at all. The researchers found that in a mouse model with depleted m6A, cell replication is prolonged, so that stem-cell differentiation, which normally reels out daughter cells in an orderly fashion, gets stuck. The knockout mouse develops less brain cells such as neurons and glia cells, and therefore has abnormal circuitry and a non-functioning brain.

Neuron development in the mini-brains that was developed is similar to what happens in people, modeling fetal brain development up to the second trimester. Human stem cells had a greater number of m6A tags compared to mouse cells. Many of the genes associated with genetic risk for certain conditions, such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder, are only m6A-tagged in humans, not in mice, raising the possibility that dysregulation at this level of gene expression may contribute to certain human brain disorders.
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Long term use of electronics gadgets hinders brain development

According to neuroscientists, long term use of smartphones can hinders brain development, the use of technology is reducing hard work and accumulation of knowledge.

Human brain has a ‘use it or lose it policy’, the ability to store facts may become diminished through lack of regular practice to recall information without checking the internet.

Time spent in a screen-based world displaced time spent ‘learning, playing and socialising in the real world’.
Outsource thinking to smartphones and other digital devices will leads to loss of brain muscles.

 Technological dependence on internet for information could have profound effects on how we routinely make sense of complex arguments, logical reasoning and creativity.

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Gene mutation can leads to brain malformation

Gene controls nerve stem cell growth and how it causes abnormal brain development in fetuses if the system goes wrong. Researchers explained how Dmrta2 controls gene in the division of cells and the production of specialised cells.

If Dmrta2 gene mutation is inherited from parents, it can cause brain malformations known as lissencephaly. Lissencephaly is a nervous system disorder in which a baby's brain is not fully developed.

Lissencephaly occurs in the second trimester of pregnancy, and leaves the fetus with a small brain and it prevents the development of brain folds and grooves which are needed for language skills and learning.

Researchers genetically mutated the Dmrta2 gene in embryonic stem cells to check the impact of too much or too little protein levels on brain development.

 They examined the effect of these changes on laboratory-created nerve cells, it shows a direct link between Dmrta2 mutation and the microcephaly.

When Dmrta2 gene is not maintaining balance between neurogenesis and cell cycle progression, brain development is altered. This can cause neurodevelopmental condition like autism.
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