While it's known that mums' stress during pregnancy has an impact on babies, new research suggests that fathers who find themselves overly stressed produce sperm that affects the resulting child's development.

 

Neuroscientist Tracy Bale from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and her team found that chronic stress changes important aspects of men's sperm.

 

In her previous research, she studied adult male mice and found that those who felt mild stress for chronic periods of time had offspring with a reduced reaction to stress, according to Science Daily.

 

Changes in stress response have been associated with certain neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression and PTSD.

 

 

"The hypothalamus, the part of the brain that determines your stress response, has been wired differently," Tracy told The Guardian of this stress reactivity change.

 

The team suspected that the behaviour of the offspring was linked to changes they found in microRNA of the father's sperm.

 

In their new research, Tracy and her fellow researchers found that stress changed the working of the caput epididymus, which is where the sperm matures.

 

The caput epididymus releases small vesicles full of microRNA, which then fuse with the sperm and alters it before it travels to and fertilises the egg.

 

When fathers were stressed, the caput epididymus responded by changing the contents of the vesicles, resulting in children whose response to stress is reduced.

 

 

The work, which is being presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, shows how even slight environmental changes can significantly affect future children.

 

The team is now investigating whether human men's sperm works just as mice's does when fathers experience long-term stress.

 

So far, Tracy says that pilot studies have found that changes in vesicles in men's semen mirror that in their sperm. This suggests that the two interact, just as they do in mice.

 

What do you think of this study's findings, mums?

Latest

Trending