Human Sperm Motility is Affected by Plasticizers and Diesel Particle Extracts

Abstract

In order to test various drugs and possibly hazardous compounds on living cells in vitro a system with human spermatozoa was employed. A population of human spermatozoa was transferred into a defined medium by a swim-up procedure or by separation on a Percoll gradient. Such a population is rather homogenous with respect to motility characteristics and was found to be useful for this purpose. Different modes of response were recorded, indicating various effect mechanisms. Effects of various phthalates used as plastic softeners in the production of medical equipment, and extracts from diesel particulate material were recorded. All these compounds interfered with sperm motility in a dose-response fashion. Immediate effects of phthalates were modest, but upon prolonged exposure effects became more evident. Sperm motility was more affected by diethyl-hexyl and dibutyl phthalates. Significant effects were noted for the different phthalates with regard both to percent motility and to some of the various qualities of motility, such as velocity, linearity and amplitude of the track. Thus, the pattern of response considering the motion variables was not the same with the different phthalates. With regard to the effects on sperm motion di-n-octyl phthalate seemed to be the least toxic, followed by dibutyl phthalate. The initial effects of diesel particulate extracts were moderate and mainly restricted to percent motile sperm but upon exposure for 18 hr the effects became more pronounced for all the movement variables.

Environmental Toxicants Induced Male Reproductive Disorders: Identification and Mechanism of Action

“…This study assessed changes in many androgenic endpoints and found that only DEHP, BBP and to a lesser degree DINP induced alterations in all aspects of androgen-regulated male reproductive endpoints. Exposure to diethyl hexyl and dibutyl phthalates is associated with adverse effects on sperm motility (Fredricsson et al, 1993). Animal studies consistently demonstrated that phthalate esters are male reproductive toxicants (Park et al, 2002), with exposure associated with testicular atrophy, spermatogenetic cell loss, and damage to the Sertoli cell population.…”

Occupational and Lifestyle Exposures on Male Infertility: A Mini Review

“…Occupational activities involving exposure to specific chemicals or expositions to toxicants may impair male reproductive health and cause infertility in humans [27,37,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58].…”

Time to pregnancy among partners of men exposed to di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate

“…While many studies have shown reproductive damage in animals exposed to DEHP, the effects DEHP have not been investigated among humans, although the study by Fredricsson et al (4) did find a decrease in sperm motility as a result of exposing human sperm cells to DEHP in vitro.…”