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.

Read more about our research

Group photo Lars Forsberg's research group

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