Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China; The Inflammation and Immune Mediated Diseases Laboratory of Anhui Province, Anhui Medical University, 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, Anhui 230032, China.
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USA; Reproductive Medicine Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, No. 218 Jixi Road, Hefei, Anhui 230022, China.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2024 Oct 1;284:116915. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2024.116915. Epub 2024 Aug 22.
Fine particulate matter (PM) may disrupt women's reproductive hormones, posing potential reproductive risks. However, the exact compositions of PM responsible for these effects remain unclear. Our investigation explored the long-term impacts of PM constituents on reproductive hormones, based on a large longitudinal assisted reproductive cohort study in Anhui, China. We included 24,396 reproductive hormone samples from 19,845 women attending assisted reproductive technologies (ART) between 2014 and 2020. Using high-resolution gridded data (1-km resolution), we calculated the residence-specified PM constituents during the year before the month of hormone testing. Relationships between PM constituents [organic matter (OM), chloride (Cl), sulfate (SO), ammonium (NH), black carbon, and nitrate] and reproductive hormones were investigated using the linear mixed model with subject-specific intercepts. The constituent-proportion model and the constituent-residual model were also constructed. Additionally, cubic spline analysis was used to examine the potential non-linear exposure-response relationship. We found that per interquartile range (IQR) increment in OM was associated with a 5.31 % (3.74 %, 6.89 %) increase in estradiol, and per IQR increment in Cl and NH were associated with 13.56 % (7.63 %, 19.82 %) and 9.07 % (4.35 %, 14.01 %) increases in luteinizing hormone. Conversely, per IQR increment in OM and Cl were associated with -7.27 % (-9.34 %, -5.16 %) and -8.52 % (-10.99 %, -5.98 %) decreases in progesterone, and per IQR increment in SO was associated with a -9.15 % (-10.31 %, -7.98 %) decrease in testosterone. These associations were held in both proportional and residual models. Moreover, exposure-response curves for estradiol and progesterone with PM constituents exhibited approximately U-shaped. These results suggested that specific PM constituents might disrupt reproductive hormone homeostasis in women attending ART, providing new evidence for formulating PM pollution reduction strategies that could benefit women's reproductive health.
细颗粒物（PM）可能会扰乱女性生殖激素，从而带来潜在的生殖风险。然而，导致这些影响的确切 PM 成分仍不清楚。我们的研究基于中国安徽的一项大型纵向辅助生殖队列研究，探讨了 PM 成分对生殖激素的长期影响。我们纳入了 2014 年至 2020 年期间接受辅助生殖技术（ART）的 19845 名女性的 24396 个生殖激素样本。我们使用高分辨率网格化数据（1 公里分辨率），计算了激素检测前一年每个月的居住地指定的 PM 成分。我们使用具有个体特异性截距的线性混合模型来研究 PM 成分（有机物（OM）、氯（Cl）、硫酸盐（SO）、铵（NH）、黑碳和硝酸盐）与生殖激素之间的关系。还构建了成分比例模型和成分残差模型。此外，还使用三次样条分析来检查潜在的非线性暴露-反应关系。我们发现，OM 每增加一个四分位距（IQR），雌二醇增加 5.31%（3.74%，6.89%）；Cl 和 NH 每增加一个 IQR，促黄体生成激素增加 13.56%（7.63%，19.82%）和 9.07%（4.35%，14.01%）；而 OM 和 Cl 每增加一个 IQR，孕酮分别减少 7.27%（9.34%，5.16%）和 8.52%（10.99%，5.98%）；SO 每增加一个 IQR，睾酮减少 9.15%（10.31%，7.98%）。这些关联在比例和残差模型中均成立。此外，PM 成分与雌二醇和孕酮的暴露-反应曲线呈近似 U 形。这些结果表明，特定的 PM 成分可能会破坏接受 ART 的女性生殖激素的动态平衡，为制定可能有益于女性生殖健康的 PM 污染减排策略提供了新的证据。
