Feng Jialin, Yuan Yan, Cheng Yuting, Wu Peihao, Yan Yixuan, Liu Qi, Wu Feng, Wei Jing, Ge Hongshan, Tang Qiuqin, Wu Wei
State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
BMC Public Health. 2025 Sep 2;25(1):3014. doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-24275-x.
Although human studies on the hazard that air pollution represents to male reproductive health, there are wide variations in exposure concentration, key components, semen quality indicators and the identification of susceptible exposure windows. The study aimed to further explore the relationship between air pollution and semen quality and the more accurate sensitive exposure windows.
We investigated a cross-sectional study consisting of 1554 fertile men from Nanjing, China and evaluated their exposure to PM, PM, CO, SO, NO and O in the air. Multiple linear regression was utilized to estimate the correlation between weekly air pollution exposure and semen quality, as well as weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression and bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) for the effect of mixtures. We also established the distributed lag non-linear model to delineate exposure-lag-response relationship.
Our analysis linked PM exposure at week 10 to reduced total motility (β = - 2.06, 95% CI: (- 3.71, - 0.41)) and progressive motility (β = - 1.79, 95% CI: (- 3.23, - 0.34)). WQS regression showed co-exposure inversely correlated with total motility (β = - 1.49, 95% CI: (- 2.63, - 0.35)) and progressive motility (β = - 1.27, 95% CI: (- 2.30, - 0.25)) at week 11, where PM contributed the most. A great lagged impact resulting from PM on sperm motility peaked 10 to 11 weeks after exposure. We also found that PM exposure at week 10 increased the risk of having below-referenced progressive motility (< 32%) by the method of BKMR. Based on these results, the early stage of spermatogenesis (from week 10 to week 11 before semen collection), was recognized as the susceptible exposure window. Furthermore, BKMR analysis suggested co-exposure to major components of the primary contributor, PM, during this period were negatively correlated with sperm motility, including NO, NH, SO, black carbon and organic matter, and SO was the most weighted composition.
In both the single pollutant models and the multi-pollutants models, PM and its chemical components inversely correlated with sperm motility in a relatively early window (from week 10 to week 11 before semen collection) which was identified to be more sensitive to air pollution.
尽管已有关于空气污染对男性生殖健康危害的人体研究，但在暴露浓度、关键成分、精液质量指标以及易感暴露窗口期的确定等方面存在很大差异。本研究旨在进一步探讨空气污染与精液质量之间的关系以及更准确的敏感暴露窗口期。
我们对来自中国南京的1554名可育男性进行了一项横断面研究，并评估了他们暴露于空气中的PM、PM、CO、SO、NO和O的情况。采用多元线性回归来估计每周空气污染暴露与精液质量之间的相关性，以及使用加权分位数和（WQS）回归和贝叶斯核机器回归（BKMR）来分析混合物的影响。我们还建立了分布滞后非线性模型来描述暴露-滞后反应关系。
我们的分析表明，第10周的PM暴露与总活力降低有关（β = - 2.06，95%置信区间：(- 3.71, - 0.41)）以及前向运动能力降低（β = - 1.79，95%置信区间：(- 3.23, - 0.34)）。WQS回归显示，在第11周时，多种污染物共同暴露与总活力（β = - 1.49，95%置信区间：(- 2.63, - 0.35)）和前向运动能力（β = - 1.27，95%置信区间：(- 2.30, - 0.25)）呈负相关，其中PM的贡献最大。PM对精子活力的滞后影响在暴露后10至11周达到峰值。我们还通过BKMR方法发现，第10周的PM暴露增加了前向运动能力低于参考值（< 32%）的风险。基于这些结果，精子发生的早期阶段（精液采集前第10周至第11周）被确定为易感暴露窗口期。此外，BKMR分析表明，在此期间主要污染物PM的主要成分共同暴露与精子活力呈负相关，包括NO、NH、SO、黑碳和有机物，其中SO的权重最大。
在单一污染物模型和多污染物模型中，PM及其化学成分在相对较早的窗口期（精液采集前第10周至第11周）与精子活力呈负相关，该窗口期被确定为对空气污染更为敏感。
