Triclosan (2,4,4 1 -trichloro-2 1 -hydroxy-diphenyl ether, TCS) is widely used in personal care, household, veterinary and industrial products. It was considered as a potential male reproductive toxicant in previous in vitro and in vivo studies. However, evidence from human studies is scarce. Our study aims to investigate the relationship between TCS exposure and semen quality. We measured urinary TCS concentrations in 471 men recruited from a male reproductive health clinic. TCS was detected in 96.7% of urine samples, with a median concentration of 0.97 ng (mg¨creatinine)´1 (interquartile range, 0.41-2.95 ng (mg¨creatinine)´1). A multiple linear regression analysis showed a negative association between natural logarithm (Ln) transformed TCS concentration (Ln-TCS) and Ln transformed number of forward moving sperms (adjusted coefficient β =´0.17; 95% confidence interval (CI) (´0.32,´0.02). Furthermore, among those with the lowest tertile of TCS level, Ln-TCS was negatively associated with the number of forward moving sperms (β =´0.35; 95% CI (´0.68, 0.03)), percentage of sperms with normal morphology (β =´1.64; 95% CI (´3.05,´0.23)), as well as number of normal morphological sperms, sperm concentration and count. Our findings suggest that the adverse effect of TCS on semen quality is modest at the environment-relevant dose in humans. Further studies are needed to confirm our findings.

BackgroundThe lack of sufficient specificity and sensitivity among conventional cancer biomarkers, such as prostate specific antigen (PSA) for prostate cancer has been widely recognized after several decades of clinical implications. Autoantibodies (autoAb) among others are being extensively investigated as potential substitute markers, but remain elusive. One major obstacle is the lack of a sensitive and multiplex approach for quantifying autoAb against a large panel of clinically relevant tumor-associated antigens (TAA).MethodsTo circumvent preparation of phage lysates and purification of recombinant proteins, we identified B cell epitopes from a number of previously defined prostate cancer-associated antigens (PCAA). Peptide epitopes from cancer/testis antigen NY-ESO-1, XAGE-1b, SSX-2,4, as well as prostate cancer overexpressed antigen AMACR, p90 autoantigen, and LEDGF were then conjugated with seroMAP microspheres to allow multiplex measurement of autoAb present in serum samples. Moreover, simultaneous quantification of autoAb plus total PSA was achieved in one reaction, and termed the "A+PSA" assay.ResultsPeptide epitopes from the above 6 PCAA were identified and confirmed that autoAb against these peptide epitopes reacted specifically with the full-length protein. A pilot study was conducted with the A+PSA assay using pre-surgery sera from 131 biopsy-confirmed prostate cancer patients and 121 benign prostatic hyperplasia and/or prostatitis patients. A logistic regression-based A+PSA index was found to enhance sensitivities and specificities over PSA alone in distinguishing prostate cancer from nonmalignant cases. The A+PSA index also reduced false positive rate and improved the area under a receiver operating characteristic curve.ConclusionsThe A+PSA assay represents a novel platform that integrates autoAb signatures with a conventional cancer biomarker, which may aid in the diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer and others.

Objective *Chong Xie, Xiangfeng Chen, and Yulin Liu contributed equally to this work.Genetic defects are identified in nearly 20% of infertile males. Determining the frequency and types of major genetic abnormalities in severe male infertility helps inform appropriate genetic counseling before assisted reproductive techniques.MethodsCytogenetic results of 912 patients with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) and severe oligozoospermia (SOS) in Eastern China were reviewed in this multicenter study from January 2011 to December 2015. Controls were 215 normozoospermic men with offspring.ResultsAmong all patients, 22.6% (206/912) had genetic abnormalities, including 27.3% (146/534) of NOA patients and 15.9% (60/378) of SOS patients. Chromosomal abnormalities (all autosomal) were detected in only 1.9% (4 /215) of controls. In NOA patients, sex chromosomal abnormalities were identified in 25.8% (138/534), of which 8% (43/534) had a 47,XXY karyotype or its mosaic; higher than the SOS group prevalence (1.1%; 4/378). The incidence of Y chromosome microdeletions was lower in the SOS group (13.2%; 50/378) than in the NOA group (17.8%; 95/534).ConclusionsThe high prevalence of genetic abnormalities in our study indicates the importance of routine genetic testing in severe male infertility diagnosis. This may help determine the choice of assisted reproductive technique and allow specific pre-implantation genetic testing to minimize the risk of transmitting genetic defects.