Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People's Republic of China.
Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Environmental Protection, and State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health (Incubating), School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People's Republic of China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2022 Nov;29(54):81749-81759. doi: 10.1007/s11356-022-21525-y. Epub 2022 Jun 23.
Previous studies have reported that exposure to phthalates and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is individually associated with altered semen quality, but no human studies have evaluated their joint effects of exposure mixtures, a more real-world scenario. We aimed to explore urinary metabolite mixtures of phthalates and PAHs in associations with semen quality. Repeated spot-urine samples gathered from 695 men attending a fertility clinic were analyzed for urinary metabolites of eight phthalates and ten monohydroxylated-PAHs (OH-PAHs). Principal component analysis (PCA)-multivariable linear regression (MLR) model, quantile g-computation (qg-comp), and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) were applied to estimate the associations of urinary mixtures of phthalate and OH-PAH metabolites with semen quality. The overall effects of urinary mixtures of phthalate and PAH metabolites on semen quality were not statistically significant. However, hydroxynaphthalene (OHNa) factor identified from PCA was monotonically associated with decreased total sperm count and sperm concentration, whereas di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) factor was non-monotonically related to increased progressive sperm motility and total sperm motility. Qg-comp and BKMR models confirmed these findings and identified 2-OHNa and 2-OHFlu as the primary negative contributors, whereas MEOHP and MEHP as the primary positive contributors. Our findings suggest that exposure to mixtures of naphthalene and DEHP is associated with altered semen quality. The finding is warranted to confirm in further well-designed epidemiological studies.
先前的研究报告称，邻苯二甲酸酯和多环芳烃（PAHs）的暴露分别与精液质量的改变有关，但尚无人类研究评估其暴露混合物的联合效应，这更符合现实情况。我们旨在探讨邻苯二甲酸酯和 PAHs 的尿液代谢物混合物与精液质量的关系。对 695 名前往生育诊所的男性的重复点尿样进行了分析，以检测 8 种邻苯二甲酸酯和 10 种单羟基化多环芳烃（OH-PAHs）的尿液代谢物。应用主成分分析（PCA）-多变量线性回归（MLR）模型、分位数 g 计算（qg-comp）和贝叶斯核机器回归（BKMR）来估计邻苯二甲酸酯和 OH-PAH 代谢物尿液混合物与精液质量的关联。邻苯二甲酸酯和 PAH 代谢物尿液混合物对精液质量的总体影响没有统计学意义。然而，从 PCA 中确定的萘羟（OHNa）因子与总精子数和精子浓度呈单调相关，而邻苯二甲酸二（2-乙基己基）酯（DEHP）因子与前向精子运动和总精子运动的增加呈非单调相关。Qg-comp 和 BKMR 模型证实了这些发现，并确定 2-OHNa 和 2-OHFlu 为主要的负贡献物，而 MEOHP 和 MEHP 为主要的正贡献物。我们的研究结果表明，萘和 DEHP 混合物的暴露与精液质量的改变有关。这一发现需要在进一步的精心设计的流行病学研究中得到证实。
