title: Transcriptomic changes in the frontal cortex associated with paternal age.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Advanced paternal age is robustly associated with several human neuropsychiatric disorders, particularly autism. The precise mechanism(s) mediating the paternal age effect are not known, but they are thought to involve the accumulation of de novo (epi)genomic alterations. In this study we investigate differences in the frontal cortex transcriptome in a mouse model of advanced paternal age.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Transcriptomic profiling was undertaken for medial prefrontal cortex tissue dissected from the male offspring of young fathers (2 month old, 4 sires, n = 16 offspring) and old fathers (10 month old, 6 sires, n = 16 offspring) in a mouse model of advancing paternal age. We found a number of differentially expressed genes in the offspring of older fathers, many previously implicated in the aetiology of autism. Pathway analysis highlighted significant enrichment for changes in functional networks involved in inflammation and inflammatory disease, which are also implicated in autism.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We observed widespread alterations to the transcriptome associated with advanced paternal age with an enrichment of genes associated with inflammation, an interesting observation given previous evidence linking the immune system to several neuropsychiatric disorders including autism.
authors.forename: Rebecca G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Cathy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fernandes
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kember
authors.forename: Leonard C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Schalkwyk
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Buxbaum
authors.forename: Abraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reichenberg
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF, UK. j.mill@exeter.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mill