Advanced paternal age has sex-specific effects on fetal brain gene expression, mouse study suggests

A Tohoku University developmental neuroscience team used RNA sequencing to compare gene expression in the embryonic telencephalon of offspring of young (3-month-old) and aged (19-month-old) male mice. Female embryos from aged fathers showed a distinct transcriptional profile with a tendency toward upregulated expression. Developmental timing was controlled within an approximately four-hour window based on limb morphology to reduce variability. The data, published in Scientific Data, provide a resource for exploring molecular links between advanced paternal age, early brain development, and sex differences in autism spectrum disorder.