PCBs Hurt Sperm, But Not Men's Fertility
Posted on: Wednesday, 12 October 2005, 21:00 CDT
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Enviromental contaminants called PCBs do damage sperm, but that damage doesn't appear to have a dramatic effect on male fertility, according to a new European study.
However, the study authors said that there needs to be more research done in this area.
PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) are toxic chemicals found widely in the environment and absorbed into the human body via food.
The study, published in the Oct. 13 issue of Human Reproduction, also found that dichlorodiphenyldichlorethylene (DDE) -- a breakdown product of DDT -- did not appear to damage sperm DNA.
Both PCBs and DDE are persistent organochlorine pollutants (POPs). This study was designed to examine whether these two POPs damaged sperm by altering its chromatin integrity. Chromatin is the DNA and associated proteins that make up a chromosome.
Researchers led by Dr. Marcello Spano, of the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, studied 700 men from Greenland, Sweden, Poland and Ukraine. The team used the Sperm Chromatin Structure Assay to test sperm samples from the volunteers. The researchers also measured the volunteers' blood serum for levels of hexachlorobiphenyl, a marker for total non dioxin-like PCBs in the body.
The volunteers also filled out questionnaires on their occupations, lifestyle and reproductive history.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about human health and environmental chemicals.
SOURCE: ESHRE, news release, Oct. 12, 2005~INFR~~ENVM~~POIS~~MENS~
Source: HealthSCOUT
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