Tobacco addiction make male chromosomes quite

A new study claims that smokers are more likely to lose their Y chromosomes in blood cells - and the heavier the addiction, the fewer male chromosomes there’s left.

The loss of the Y chromosome, which generally only men possess, may also explain why male smokers have a higher risk of cancer than female smokers. This is because the immune cells in the blood that fight cancer are hampered without their Y chromosome.

“The cells that lose the Y chromosome… they don’t die. But we think that they would have a disrupted biological function,” Lars Forsberg of the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology at Uppsala University in Sweden, as quoted by Live Science portal.

Scientists have been aware for 50 years that Y chromosomes can disappear, and that this is more likely in older rather than younger men.

Read more at RT.com.