TY - JOUR
T1 - Environmental exposure to metals and male reproductive hormones
T2 - circulating testosterone is inversely associated with blood molybdenum
AU - Meeker, John D.
AU - Rossano, Mary G.
AU - Protas, Bridget
AU - Padmanahban, Vasantha
AU - Diamond, Michael P.
AU - Puscheck, Elizabeth
AU - Daly, Douglas
AU - Paneth, Nigel
AU - Wirth, Julia J.
PY - 2010/1/1
Y1 - 2010/1/1
N2 - Objective: To explore associations between exposure to metals and male reproductive hormone levels. Design: Cross-sectional epidemiology study with adjustment for potential confounders. Setting: University Medical Center. Patient(s): Men recruited through two infertility clinics in Michigan. Intervention(s): Metal concentrations and reproductive hormone levels were measured in blood samples collected from 219 men. Main Outcome Measure(s): Serum FSH, LH, inhibin B, T, and sex hormone-binding globulin levels. Result(s): Cadmium, copper, and lead were all significantly or suggestively positively associated with T when modeled individually, findings that are consistent with limited previous human and animal studies. Conversely, molybdenum was associated with reduced T. A significant inverse trend between molybdenum and T remained when additionally considering other metals in the model, and a positive association between T and zinc was also found. Finally, in exploratory analysis there was evidence for an interaction between molybdenum and zinc, whereby high molybdenum was associated with a 37% reduction in T (relative to the population median level) among men with low zinc. Conclusion(s): Although reductions in T and reproductive toxicity after molybdenum exposure have been previously demonstrated in animal studies, more research is needed to determine whether molybdenum poses a risk to human reproductive health.
AB - Objective: To explore associations between exposure to metals and male reproductive hormone levels. Design: Cross-sectional epidemiology study with adjustment for potential confounders. Setting: University Medical Center. Patient(s): Men recruited through two infertility clinics in Michigan. Intervention(s): Metal concentrations and reproductive hormone levels were measured in blood samples collected from 219 men. Main Outcome Measure(s): Serum FSH, LH, inhibin B, T, and sex hormone-binding globulin levels. Result(s): Cadmium, copper, and lead were all significantly or suggestively positively associated with T when modeled individually, findings that are consistent with limited previous human and animal studies. Conversely, molybdenum was associated with reduced T. A significant inverse trend between molybdenum and T remained when additionally considering other metals in the model, and a positive association between T and zinc was also found. Finally, in exploratory analysis there was evidence for an interaction between molybdenum and zinc, whereby high molybdenum was associated with a 37% reduction in T (relative to the population median level) among men with low zinc. Conclusion(s): Although reductions in T and reproductive toxicity after molybdenum exposure have been previously demonstrated in animal studies, more research is needed to determine whether molybdenum poses a risk to human reproductive health.
KW - Biomarkers
KW - endocrine
KW - epidemiology
KW - exposure
KW - fertility
KW - metals
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U2 - 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2008.09.044
DO - 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2008.09.044
M3 - Article
C2 - 18990371
AN - SCOPUS:72749108421
SN - 0015-0282
VL - 93
SP - 130
EP - 140
JO - Fertility and Sterility
JF - Fertility and Sterility
IS - 1
ER -