Human Reproduction, Vol. 18, No. 12, 2525-2533,
December 2003
© 2003 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
Lack of an association between environmental exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls and p,p'-DDE and DNA damage in human sperm measured using the neutral comet assay
1 Department of Environmental Health, Occupational Health Program, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, 2 Vincent Memorial Obstetrics & Gynecology Service, Andrology Laboratory and In Vitro Fertilization Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, 3 Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 and 4 Department of Environmental Health, Environmental Science and Engineering Program, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
5 To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Occupational Health Program, Harvard School of Public Health, Building 1—room 1405, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. e-mail: rhauser{at}hohp.harvard.edu
BACKGROUND: Chlorinated organic chemicals, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DDT), and dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethene (DDE, the most stable daughter compound of DDT) are persistent lipophilic compounds found in a large portion of the general population. To explore the hypothesis that environmental exposure to these compounds is associated with altered DNA integrity in human sperm, a study of 212 male partners of a sub-fertile couple who presented to the Massachusetts General Hospital Andrology Laboratory was conducted. METHODS: The neutral single cell microgel electrophoresis assay (comet assay) was used to assess DNA integrity in sperm. VisComet image analysis software was used to measure total comet length, the proportion of DNA present in the comet tail, and tail distributed moment, an integrated measure of length and intensity. RESULTS: In the regression analyses, there were no statistically significant consistent associations between the comet assay parameters and any of the individual PCB congeners, sum of PCB, or p,p'-DDE. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that there are not strong relationships between adult levels of these chlorinated organic compounds and sperm DNA damage as measured by the comet assay.
Key words: comet assay/DDT/DNA damage/polychlorinated biphenyls/sperm
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