Co-exposure to 55 endocrine-disrupting chemicals linking diminished sperm quality: Mixture effect, and the role of seminal plasma docosapentaenoic acid

• DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2024.108571
• Publication Date: 2024-03-11T08:20:03Z
• Authors: Chang Gao; Nan Sun; Jinying Xie; Jiehao Li; Lin Tao; Lijuan Guo; Lan Shi; Xiaojin He; Xiaoting Shen; Hua Wang; Pan Yang; Adrian Covaci; Yichao Huang
• Keywords: Docosapentaenoic acid; Semen quality

Isolated effects of single endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) on male reproductive health have been studied extensively, but their mixture effect remains unelucidated. Previous research has suggested that consuming diet enriched in omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) might be beneficial for health, whether PUFA could moderate the EDCs semen quality to explored. In this study 155 recruited from a center China, we used targeted-exposomics simultaneously measure 55 urine exposure burden. Regression analyses were restricted highly detected (≥55 %, n = 34), and those with consistently elevated risk further screened brought into models (Bisphenol A, ethyl paraben, methyl paraben [MeP], benzophenone-1 [BP1], benzophenone-3, mono(3-carboxypropyl) phthalate [MCPP]). Bayesian Kernel Machine (BKMR) quantile-based g-computation (QGC) demonstrated co-exposure top-ranked was related reduced sperm total (β −0.18, 95 % CI: −0.29 – −0.07, P 0.002) progressive motility −0.27, %CI: −0.43 −0.10, 0.002), not lower volume. BP1, MeP MCPP identified as main driver deteriorated motion parameters using model analyses. Seminal plasma acid profiling showed high status, notably docosapentaenoic (DPA, C22:5n-3) moderated association between (total motility: β 0.26, 0.01 −0.51, Pinteraction 0.047; 0.64, 0.23 1.05, 0.003). Co-exposure range is mainly associated quality, lesser extent quantity, seminal DPA status protective against effect. Our work emphasizes importance exposomic approach assess chemical exposures highlighted new possible intervention target mitigating potential adverse quality.