We are the cause of our Problem: Lack of Y chromosomes due to smoking habit

Men who smoke are more likely than non-smokers to lose the male sex chromosome - which could explain why male smokers are more prone to certain cancers than women who smoke, scientists have said.

Researchers found that male smokers had significantly fewer blood cells with a Y chromosome compared to non-smokers, and that the trend increased with heavy smoking - and disappeared when a man gave up cigarettes.

“We have previously demonstrated an association between loss of the Y chromosome in blood and greater risk for cancer. We now tested if there were any lifestyle or clinical factors that could be linked to loss of the Y chromosome,” said Lars Forsberg of Uppsala University in Sweden, who led the study published in the journal Science.

“Out of a large number of factors that were studied, such as age, blood pressure, diabetes, alcohol intake and smoking, we found that loss of the Y chromosome in a fraction of the blood cells was more common in smokers than in non-smokers,” Dr Forsberg said.

The risk was dose dependent, indicating that the more cigarettes a man smoked, the greater the proportion of blood cells with missing Y chromosomes. Giving up cigarettes led to a reversal of the mutation, Dr Forsberg said.

“These results indicate that smoking can cause loss of the Y chromosome, and that this process might be reversible. We found that the frequency of cells with loss of the Y chromosome was not different among ex-smokers compared to men who had never smoked. This discovery could be very persuasive for motivating smokers to quit,” he said.

Cancer is incurable. Please prevent it by stopping smoking habits. 

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