Smoking Mice! Cancer Link?!
Alright it’s a funny title, but recent research on mice has found that smoking can not only cause cancer (which we all know!) but can damage sperm by changing it’s DNA sequence.
Several Mature Mice were exposed to cigarette smoke for either six or 12 weeks, while a specific strech of repeated portions of DNA were monitored (a section believe not to contain any genes).
Having been exposed to two cigareetes a day (an equivalent to an average human smoker), the team found the rate of mutations in the smoking mice were higher (1.7 times higher in the 12 week smokers, and 1.4 in the 6 week smokers) compared to that of the non-smoking mice.
This, according to the team, suggests that damage is related to the duration of exposure. “So the longer you smoke, the more mutations accumulate and the more likely a potential effect may arise in the offspring,”
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