Male factorUrine bisphenol-A (BPA) level in relation to semen quality
Section snippets
Materials and methods
See the Supplemental Materials online for the full description. A detailed description of our study can be found elsewhere 21, 22. The following are brief descriptions of the study population and relevant methods.
Results
The distribution of BPA levels by the characteristics of the study population is presented in Supplemental Table 1 (available online). Participants with more advanced education and longer employment history had relatively lower BPA levels. The most important determining factor for a high BPA level in this study population was exposure to BPA in the workplace. There was no clear pattern of BPA distribution by age. The urine BPA level was not associated with marital status, a history of chronic
Discussion
Animal studies have shown that exposure to BPA could have detrimental effects on the male reproductive system 1, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 29. As a potent endocrine disruptor, BPA has been shown to have both estrogenic and antiandrogenic properties, which provides biological plausibility for an adverse effect of BPA on the male reproductive system. However, human studies examining this effect have been limited, and more studies are only now emerging. We recently reported on an increased risk of
Conclusion
This study presents for the first time evidence of an association between a BPA exposure biomarker (urine BPA level) and declining semen quality—specifically, reduced sperm concentration, total sperm count, vitality, and motility—in a human population. The association also demonstrated a dose-response relationship between increasing urine BPA level and reduction in semen quality among those with low environmental BPA exposure levels as well as those with high BPA exposure levels from the
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Roxana Odouli for her help in developing data collection instruments and preparing the manuscript; the participating factories for their cooperation; and staff at local Chinese Centers for Disease Control for their help with data collection.
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D-K.L. has nothing to disclose. Z.J.Z. has nothing to disclose. M.M. has nothing to disclose. Y.H. has nothing to disclose. J.T.W. has nothing to disclose. J.F. has nothing to disclose. L.J.H. has nothing to disclose. E.S.G. has nothing to disclose. W.Y. has nothing to disclose.
Supported by a grant from the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) (R01 OH007580).