Paternal age and preeclampsia.
BACKGROUND
Paternal aging is associated with premeiotic damage to spermatogonia, a mechanism by which new point mutations are introduced into the gene pool. We hypothesized that paternal age might contribute to preeclampsia.


METHODS
We studied the incidence of preeclampsia in 81,213 deliveries surveyed in 1964-1976 in the Jerusalem Perinatal Study. We controlled for maternal age, parity and other risk factors using logistic regression.


RESULTS
Preeclampsia was reported in 1303 deliveries (1.6%). Compared with fathers age 25-34 years, the odds ratios (ORs) for preeclampsia were 1.24 (95% confidence interval = 1.05-1.46) for age 35-44 and 1.80 (1.40-2.31) for age 45+. For fathers age <25, the OR was 1.25 (1.04-1.51). Although weaker than maternal age effects, paternal effects were consistent within subgroups of other variables.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings support the hypothesis that a modest proportion of preeclampsia might be explained by new mutations acquired from fathers and add to a growing body of evidence for paternal age effects in birth defects, neuropsychiatric disease and neoplasia.
Harlap
Susan
S
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Kaplan Cancer Center, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA. harlas01@popmail.med.nyu.edu
Paltiel
Ora
O
Deutsch
Lisa
L
Knaanie
Ariella
A
Masalha
Sausan
S
Tiram
Efrat
E
Caplan
Lee S
LS
Malaspina
Dolores
D
Friedlander
Yechiel
Y
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005220:Fathers; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010331:Paternal Age; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics; D011247:Pregnancy