Paternal aging and associated intraindividual alterations of global sperm 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine levels

Global sperm DNA methylation patterns are stable over short periods of time but increase with age, which raises important questions regarding the risks of advanced paternal age. Additionally, as we would predict for a transcriptionally quiescent cell type, 5-hmC levels are statistically significantly lower in human sperm than in blood DNA.