Zhang Yangchang, Zhao Shi, Cao Wangnan, Sun Shengzhi, Zeng Qiang, Luo Peng
School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, P. R. China.
School of Public Health, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, P. R. China.
Environ Health (Wash). 2024 Jul 1;2(10):729-738. doi: 10.1021/envhealth.4c00066. eCollection 2024 Oct 18.
Ambient ozone (O) exposure may be associated with a reduction of semen quality, yet the potential biological mechanisms remain unclear. We investigated the effects of certain seminal plasma metabolites on mediating the links between O exposure and the deterioration of semen quality. The untargeted metabolomics analysis was performed on semen samples of 200 Chinese adult men to determine candidate metabolites associated with characteristics of semen quality. Mediation analysis was adopted to examine whether these metabolites modulated the links between O exposure and semen quality. We found a significant reduction in sperm concentration by -28.1% (95% CI: -41.7%, -11.3%), and sperm count by -29.2% (95% CI: -43.7%, -11.0%) associated with each 10 μg/m increase in ambient O concentration during the period of sperm development. We delineated 7 metabolites in seminal fluid that substantially mediated the links between O exposure and declined semen quality, including myristoleic acid, aspartyl-isoleucine, phenylethyl primeveroside, ACar (18:2), ACar (18:1), FAHFA (22:6/22:3), and LPS (22:5). Among these, myristoleic acid exhibited the most pronounced mediation effects, with its indirect effect of which accounts for 46.4% of the overall association. Our findings suggested that exposure to ozone decreased sperm quality by disrupting fatty acid metabolism, particularly myristoleic acid.
环境臭氧（O）暴露可能与精液质量下降有关，但其潜在的生物学机制仍不清楚。我们研究了某些精浆代谢物在介导臭氧暴露与精液质量恶化之间联系中的作用。对200名中国成年男性的精液样本进行非靶向代谢组学分析，以确定与精液质量特征相关的候选代谢物。采用中介分析来检验这些代谢物是否调节了臭氧暴露与精液质量之间的联系。我们发现，在精子发育期间，环境臭氧浓度每增加10μg/m，精子浓度显著降低28.1%（95%CI：-41.7%，-11.3%），精子数量显著降低29.2%（95%CI：-43.7%，-11.0%）。我们确定了精液中的7种代谢物，它们在很大程度上介导了臭氧暴露与精液质量下降之间的联系，包括肉豆蔻油酸、天冬氨酰异亮氨酸、苯乙基樱草糖苷、ACar（18:2）、ACar（18:1）、FAHFA（22:6/22:3）和LPS（22:5）。其中，肉豆蔻油酸表现出最显著的中介作用，其间接效应占总体关联的46.4%。我们的研究结果表明，臭氧暴露通过扰乱脂肪酸代谢，尤其是肉豆蔻油酸，降低了精子质量。
