Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 17, 2026
Social Defeat Stress Model for Adolescent C57BL/6 Male and Female Mice
Published on: March 15, 2024
Advancing paternal age is associated with deficits in social and exploratory behaviors in the offspring: a mouse
Rebecca G Smith1, Rachel L Kember, Jonathan Mill
1Medical Research Council Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
Background:
Accumulating evidence from epidemiological research has demonstrated an association between advanced paternal age and risk for several psychiatric disorders including autism, schizophrenia and early-onset bipolar disorder. In order to establish causality, this study used an animal model to investigate the effects of advanced paternal age on behavioural deficits in the offspring.
Methods:
C57BL/6J offspring (n = 12 per group) were bred from fathers of two different ages, 2 months (young) and 10 months (old), and mothers aged 2 months (n = 6 breeding pairs per group). Social and exploratory behaviors were examined in the offspring.
Principal Findings:
The offspring of older fathers were found to engage in significantly less social (p = 0.02) and exploratory (p = 0.02) behaviors than the offspring of younger fathers. There were no significant differences in measures of motor activity.
Conclusions:
Given the well-controlled nature of this study, this provides the strongest evidence for deleterious effects of advancing paternal age on social and exploratory behavior. De-novo chromosomal changes and/or inherited epigenetic changes are the most plausible explanatory factors.
