Medical Digest |

Fathers who wait until they're almost 40 to have children may provide a unique benefit to their offspring: longer lives.

Children of older fathers, those in their late 30s to early 50s, inherit longer telomeres, caps at the end of the chromosomes that protect them from degeneration, according to a study Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Longer telomeres seem to promote slower aging and may mean a longer life span for these children, the study said.

Previous research has shown that the older a father is, the more likely the children will carry spontaneously arising mutations, which can produce disorders like autism. Some research has suggested that children of older fathers also have lower intelligence scores than those born to younger men.

Monday's study suggests late fatherhood isn't all risk, said Dan Eisenberg, a study author and doctoral student at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

The longer telomeres may delay sexual development, and direct the body's energy into maintaining itself and staying healthy, he said. The late fatherhood may serve as a signal that mortality rates are low, Eisenberg said.

The benefit was also seen in grandchildren of men who became fathers at later ages.

Damaged telomeres cause cells to stop dividing, stem cells to become dormant, organs to atrophy and brain cells to die. As most cells age, the telomeres become shorter and shorter.

This isn't the case for sperm, where telomeres lengthen with age. The men may be passing the longer telomeres to their children, boosting their life span.

The study looked at 2,023 children in the Philippines. There were no differences in telomere length between the boys and girls of the same generation.

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and Northwestern University.

Insurers to keep

parts of health law

Some of the nation's biggest health insurers will keep some popular parts of President Obama's health-care overhaul even if the law fails to survive Supreme Court scrutiny this month.

UnitedHealth Group, Humana and Aetna all said Monday they will continue to cover preventive care such as immunizations and screenings without requiring patients to pay a co-payment.

They also said they'd still cover adult children up to age 26 through their parents' insurance plans. Additionally, they all pledged to continue to offer a simple process for patients who want to appeal when their insurance claims have been denied.

WellPoint, the nation's second largest insurer behind UnitedHealth, said it will announce its plans after the Supreme Court's ruling. The company runs Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in several states.

The announcements come after insurers initially fought to block passage of the overhaul, which aims to provide coverage for millions of uninsured people.

Challenges from states and other groups opposed to the law, which was passed in 2010, made their way to the Supreme Court. Justices are expected to rule later this month on whether to uphold the law or strike down parts or all of it.

A setback

in autism research

BELMONT, Mass. — A freezer malfunctioned at a Harvard-affiliated hospital that oversees the world's largest collection of autistic brain samples, damaging a third of the scientifically precious specimens and casting doubt on whether they can be used in research.

The director of the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center said the loss was "devastating," particularly in light of the increasing demand for brain samples among scientists searching for the cause of autism and potential treatments.

"Over the last 10 years, the autism-tissue program has been working very hard to get the autism community to understand the importance of brain donation," Dr. Francine Benes said. Now many of those samples have been compromised.

The freezer failed sometime late last month at the center, which is housed at McLean Hospital in the Boston suburb of Belmont.

At least 54 samples earmarked for autism research were harmed. Many of them turned dark with decay.

However, an initial review indicates the DNA in the samples is intact and can still be used for genetic research.

It's unclear whether the samples could be used for the full range of neuroscience needs.

Seattle Times news services