Developmental Risks of Paternal Age in the Context of Adrenarche

Paternal age at conception has the potential to alter the brain-endocrine axis during adrenarche (∼6-8 yo) for a number of reasons: 1) it is associated with sperm DNA alterations in regions involved in both brain and endocrine maturation; 2) significant shifts in adrenal hormones (dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), testosterone (T), androstenedione (A) and cortisol (C)) during middle childhood may increase the brain’s vulnerability to the impact of paternally-inherited factors. The aim of this study was to examine whether these hormones mediated/moderated the impact of paternal age on child development.