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Relationships between sperm DNA fragmentation, sperm apoptotic markers and serum levels of CB-153 and p,p'-DDE in European and Inuit populations

Institute of Biology and Genetics, Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy, ¹ Laboratory of Genetics, Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy, ² Institute of Biochemical Biotecnology, Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy, ³ Section of Toxicology and Biomedical Sciences, BIOTEC-MED, ENEA Casaccia Research Centre, Rome, Italy, ⁴ Department of Occupational Medicine, Århus University Hospital, Århus, Denmark, ⁵ Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Psychiatric Epidemiology, University Hospital, Lund, Sweden, ⁶ Fertility Centre, Malmö University Hospital, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden, ⁷ Centre for Arctic Environmental Medicine, Nuuk, Greenland, Denmark, ⁸ Unit of Cellular & Molecular Toxicology, Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, Institute of Public Health, University of Aarhus, Århus, Denmark, ⁹ Department of Environmental Toxicology, National Institute of Hygiene, Warsaw, Poland, ¹⁰ Director of Regional Clinical, Center of Urology and Nephrology, Kharkiv, Ukraine and ¹¹ Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, Connecticut, USA

Correspondence should be addressed to D Bizzaro; Email: d.bizzaro{at}univpm.it

Persistent organochlorine pollutants (POPs) are suspected to interfere with hormone activity and the normal homeostasis of spermatogenesis. We investigated the relationships between sperm DNA fragmentation, apoptotic markers identified on ejaculated spermatozoa and POP levels in the blood of 652 adult males (200 Inuits from Greenland, 166 Swedish, 134 Polish and 152 Ukrainian). Serum levels of 2, 2', 4, 4', 5, 5'-hexachlorobiphenyl (CB-153), as a proxy of the total POP burden, and of 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)-ethylene (p,p'-DDE), as a proxy of the total DDT exposure were determined. Sperm DNA fragmentation was measured by using the TUNEL assay, whereas immunofluorescence methods were utilized for detecting pro-apoptotic (Fas) and anti-apoptotic (Bcl-xL) markers. Both TUNEL assay and apoptotic markers were statistically differed across the four populations. No correlation between neither sperm DNA fragmentation nor apoptotic sperm parameters and the large variations in POPs exposure was observed for the separate study groups. However, considering the European populations taken together, we showed that both %TUNEL positivity and Bcl-xL were related to CB-153 serum levels, whereas our study failed to demonstrate any relations between DDE and %TUNEL positivity and apoptotic sperm biomarkers (Fas and Bcl-xL) in any region or overall regions. These results suggest that CB-153 and related chemicals might alter sperm DNA integrity and Bcl-xL levels in European adult males, but not in the highly exposed Inuit men. Additional issues (genetic background, lifestyle habits and characterization of total xeno-hormonal activities) need to be investigated in order to fully assess the population variations observed.

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