Background: Exposures to endocrine-disrupting chemicals during critical phases of testicular development may be related to poorer semen parameters. However, few studies have assessed the association between childhood organochlorine (OC) exposure and adult semen parameters.
Objective: We examined whether peripubertal serum OC concentrations are associated with semen parameters among young Russian men.
Methods: From 2003 through 2005, 516 boys were enrolled at age 8–9 years and followed for up to 10 years. Serum OCs were measured in the enrollment samples using high-resolution mass spectrometry. At 18–19 years, 133 young men provided 1 or 2 semen samples (256 samples) collected approximately 1 week apart, which were analyzed for volume, sperm concentration, and motility. Unadjusted and adjusted linear mixed models were used to examine the associations of quartiles of lipid-standardized concentrations of dioxins [2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs)], furans, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and corresponding toxic equivalents (TEQs) with semen parameters.
Results: The median (range) for TCDD was 2.9 (0.4–12.1) pg/g lipid and PCDD TEQ was 8.7 (1.0–36.0) pg TEQ/g lipid. Higher quartiles of TCDD and PCDD TEQs were associated with lower sperm concentration, total sperm count, and total motile sperm count (p-trends ≤ 0.05). The highest quartile of peripubertal serum TCDD concentrations was associated with a decrease (95% CI) of 40% (18, 66%), 29% (3, 64%), and 30% (2, 70%) in sperm concentration, total sperm count, and total motile sperm count, respectively, compared with the lowest quartile. Similar associations were observed for serum PCDD TEQs with semen parameters. Serum PCBs, furans, and total TEQs were not associated with semen parameters.
Conclusion: Higher peripubertal serum TCDD concentrations and PCDD TEQs were associated with poorer semen parameters.
1Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 2Department of Genomics and Human Genetics Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; 3Chapaevsk Medical Association, Chapaevsk, Samara Region, Russia; 4Department of Biostatistics, and 5Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 6Pediatric Endocrine Division, Departments of Pediatrics and Cell & Developmental Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA; 7Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 8Institute for Forecasting, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
Recommended Citation:
Lidia Mínguez-Alarcón,1 Oleg Sergeyev,2,et al. A Longitudinal Study of Peripubertal Serum Organochlorine Concentrations and Semen Parameters in Young Men: The Russian Children’s Study[J]. Environmental Health Perspectives,2017-01-01,Volume 125(Issue 3):460