(ORDO NEWS) — About one in five hundred men have an extra sex chromosome, which increases the risk of type 2 diabetes and other diseases, researchers from the University of Cambridge and their colleagues from Finland and Germany have found. They reported this in an article in the journal Genetics in Medicine.
The researchers analyzed records from the UK Biobank repository of medical and genetic information on more than 200,000 British men aged 40-70. Of these, 356 had an extra X or Y sex chromosome.
Since the UK Biobank has data on people who are healthier than the general population, researchers estimate that one in 500 men has an extra chromosome.
Sometimes an extra sex chromosome is detected by doctors if a man is being examined for delayed puberty or infertility, but in most cases, men do not know about their features, the authors of the work note.
Further analysis showed that in men with the XXY genotype, the risk of infertility was four times higher, the risk of delayed puberty was three times higher. They also had significantly lower testosterone levels. Males with the XYY genotype had no reproductive problems.
Men with an extra sex chromosome were three times more likely to suffer from type 2 diabetes, six times more likely to have thrombosis, three times more likely to experience pulmonary embolism, and four times more likely to have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
“We will need more research to evaluate whether there is an added benefit to broader screening for chromosomal abnormalities in the general population, but it has the potential to provide early intervention that can prevent the development of related diseases,” the authors said.
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