Hum. Reprod. Advance Access published online on October 13, 2005
Human Reproduction, doi:10.1093/humrep/dei297
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1 Section of Toxicology and Biomedical Sciences, BIOTEC-MED, ENEA Casaccia, 00060 Rome, Italy
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. BACKGROUND: Persistent organochlorine pollutants (POP), such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p'-DDE), are widely found in the environment and considered potential endocrinedisrupting compounds (EDC). Their impact on male fertility is still unknown. METHODS: To explore the hypothesis that POP is associated with altered sperm chromatin integrity, a cross-sectional study involving 707 adult males (193 Inuits from Greenland, 178 Swedish fishermen, 141 men from Warsaw, Poland, and 195 men from Kharkiv, Ukraine) was carried out. Serum levels of 2,2',4,4',5,5'-hexachlorobiphenyl (CB-153), as a proxy of the total PCB burden, and of p,p'-DDE were determined. Sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA) was used to assess sperm DNA/chromatin integrity. RESULTS: We found a strong and monotonically increasing DNA fragmentation index with increasing serum levels of CB-153 among European but not Inuit men, reaching a 60% higher average level in the highest exposure group. No significant associations were found between SCSA-derived parameters and p,p'-DDE serum concentrations. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that human dietary PCB exposure might have a negative impact on the sperm chromatin integrity of adult males but additional issues, including differences in the genetic background and lifestyle habits, still need to be elucidated.
Received June 22, 2005
Revised August 11, 2005
Accepted August 16, 2005
Article
Exposure to PCB and p,p'-DDE in European and Inuit populations: impact on human sperm chromatin integrity
2 Department of Occupational Medicine, Århus University Hospital, DK-8000 Århus C, Denmark
3 Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University Hospital, SE-22185 Lund, Sweden
4 Department of Environmental Toxicology, National Institute of Hygiene, 00-791 Warsaw, Poland
5 Laboratory of Human Reproduction, Kharkiv State Medical University, 61145 Kharkiv, Ukraine
M. Spanò, E-mail: spanomrc{at}casaccia.enea.it
Abstract
* This study is part of the Project "INUENDO - Biopersistent organochlorines in diet and human fertility. Epidemiological studies of time to pregnancy and semen quality in Inuit and European populations" (http://www.inuendo.dk), supported by The European Commission to the 5th Framework Programme Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources, Key Action 4 on Environment and Health (Contract no. QLK4-CT-2001-00202).
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