Lars Forsberg – LOY – why men live shorter lives?
Our research contributes to solving a long-lasting conundrum in medicine; the fact that men live shorter lives than women. Loss of Y chromosome (called LOY) is the most common human mutation. We have established that men affected with LOY display increased risk for all major causes of death, including cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.
Men in the entire world live on average about 5–6 years shorter lives than women, a sex bias that has been known but poorly understood for centuries. Since LOY is male-specific and is associated with increased risk for disease and death, our research helps elucidate why men live shorter lives.
Our research shows that LOY causes/exacerbates disease processes in other organs by stimulating the formation of fibrosis. This discovery helps explaining how LOY in blood cells can increase the risk for disease manifesting in other organs. This finding may have great clinical significance.

Group members
Publications
Loss of chromosome Y in regulatory T cells
Part of BMC Genomics, 2024
- DOI for Loss of chromosome Y in regulatory T cells
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Hematopoietic loss of Y chromosome leads to cardiac fibrosis and heart failure mortality
Part of Science, p. 292-297, 2022
Loss of Y and clonal hematopoiesis in blood: two sides of the same coin?
Part of Leukemia, p. 889-891, 2022
- DOI for Loss of Y and clonal hematopoiesis in blood: two sides of the same coin?
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Part of Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences (CMLS), 2022
- DOI for Reply to Guo's commentary on: "Immune cells lacking Y chromosome show dysregulation of autosomal gene expression"
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A polygenic risk score predicts mosaic loss of chromosome Y in circulating blood cells
Part of Cell & Bioscience, 2021
- DOI for A polygenic risk score predicts mosaic loss of chromosome Y in circulating blood cells
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Chromosome Y loss and drivers of clonal hematopoiesis in myelodysplastic syndrome
Part of Haematologica, p. 329-331, 2021
- DOI for Chromosome Y loss and drivers of clonal hematopoiesis in myelodysplastic syndrome
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Immune cells lacking Y chromosome show dysregulation of autosomal gene expression
Part of Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences (CMLS), p. 4019-4033, 2021
- DOI for Immune cells lacking Y chromosome show dysregulation of autosomal gene expression
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Leukocytes with chromosome Y loss have reduced abundance of the cell surface immunoprotein CD99
Part of Scientific Reports, 2021
- DOI for Leukocytes with chromosome Y loss have reduced abundance of the cell surface immunoprotein CD99
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Part of European Journal of Human Genetics, p. 1323-1324, 2021
Part of European Journal of Human Genetics, p. 349-357, 2020
- DOI for Longitudinal changes in the frequency of mosaic chromosome Y loss in peripheral blood cells of aging men varies profoundly between individuals
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Part of European Journal of Human Genetics, p. 17-19, 2019
- DOI for Back to the drawing board: loss of chromosome Y (LOY) inleukocytes is associated with age-related macular degeneration
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Genetic predisposition to mosaic Y chromosome loss in blood
Part of Nature, p. 652-657, 2019
Mosaic loss of chromosome Y in leukocytes matters
Part of Nature Genetics, p. 4-7, 2019
Part of Leukemia, p. 1184-1194, 2019
Part of Journal of Sleep Research, 2018
- DOI for Self-reported sleep disturbances and prostate cancer morbidity and mortality in Swedish men: A longitudinal study over 40 years
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A MUTYH germline mutation is associated with small intestinal neuroendocrine tumors
Part of Endocrine-Related Cancer, p. 427-443, 2017
- DOI for A MUTYH germline mutation is associated with small intestinal neuroendocrine tumors
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Loss of Chromosome Y in Leukocytes and Major Cardiovascular Events
Part of Circulation, 2017
Part of Human Genetics, p. 657-663, 2017
Mosaicism in health and disease — clones picking up speed
Part of Nature reviews genetics, p. 128-142, 2017
Biobanking multifocal breast carcinomas: sample adequacy with regard to histology and DNA content
Part of Histopathology, p. 411-421, 2016
Part of Nature Communications, 2016
- DOI for Human serum-derived protein removes the need for coating in defined human pluripotent stem cell culture
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Mosaic Loss of Chromosome Y in Blood Is Associated with Alzheimer Disease
Part of American Journal of Human Genetics, p. 1208-1219, 2016
- DOI for Mosaic Loss of Chromosome Y in Blood Is Associated with Alzheimer Disease
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Part of Human Mutation, p. 1088-1099, 2015
Part of Leukemia, p. 1600-1602, 2015
Mutagenesis: smoking is associated with mosaic loss of chromosome Y
Part of Science, p. 81-83, 2015
Part of Leukemia, p. 2069-2074, 2015
Part of Genome Research, p. 1521-1535, 2015
- DOI for Signatures of post-zygotic structural genetic aberrations in the cells of histologically normal breast tissue that can predispose to sporadic breast cancer
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Part of Journal of Medical Genetics, p. 599-606, 2015
Part of Nature Genetics, p. 624-628, 2014
Part of Journal of Medical Genetics, p. 1-10, 2013
Part of Postgraduate medical journal, p. 417-426, 2013
- DOI for Non-heritable genetics of human disease: spotlight on post-zygotic genetic variation acquired during lifetime (Reprinted from vol 50, pg 1-10, 2013)
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Part of PLOS ONE, 2013
- DOI for Post-Zygotic and Inter-Individual Structural Genetic Variation in a Presumptive Enhancer Element of the Locus between the IL10Rβ and IFNAR1 Genes
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Age-related somatic structural changes in the nuclear genome of human blood cells
Part of American Journal of Human Genetics, p. 217-228, 2012
Part of American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part A, p. 2595-2598, 2010
Sperm competition between alternative reproductive tactics of the Atlantic salmon in vitro
Part of Aquaculture, p. 265-269, 2010
Part of Journal of Evolutionary Biology, p. 1859-1869, 2007