ESPE Abstracts (2015) 84 LBP--1257

ESPE2015 Poster Category 3 Late Breaking Posters (15 abstracts)

Prepubertal and Pubertal Predictors of Semen Quality in a Prospective Cohort Study of Russian Young Men: Focus on Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals

Oleg Sergeyev a, , Lidia Mínguez-Alarcón c , Russ Hauser c, , Paige L Williams d, , Jane S Burns c , Susan A Korrick c, , Yury Dikov b , Liudmila Smigulina b , Boris Revich b, & Mary M Lee h


aDepartment of Genomics and Human Genetics, Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russia; bChapaevsk Medical Association, Chapaevsk, Samara Region, Russia; cDepartment of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; dDepartment of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; eDepartment of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; fChanning Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; gInstitute of Economic Forecasting, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russia; hPediatric Endocrine Division, Departments of Pediatrics and Cell Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA


Background: We are not aware of other longitudinal cohort studies of boys with prepubertal assessment of exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and annual long term follow-up of growth and puberty to evaluate semen quality.

Objective: To describe semen quality and explore associations of prepubertal serum concentrations of organochlorine compounds and pubertal measures with semen parameters in an ongoing longitudinal cohort study of Russian boys.

Design/methods: From 2003 to 2005, 516 prepubertal 8–9 year old boys were enrolled (86% of all eligible Chapaevsk boys, Russia) and underwent annual growth and sexual development assessments for ten years, including Tanner staging and measurement of testicular volume. Serum dioxins were measured by the U.S.CDC in baseline samples. At age 18, the 133 young men collected up to two semen samples (n=256) one week apart with 54% participation among those eligible. Semen samples were analyzed for volume, sperm concentration and motility by one technician (LS) according to the NAFA-ESHRE manual. Linear mixed models with random intercepts were used to examine the relation between quartiles of serum concentrations of dioxins with semen parameters. Models were adjusted for BMI, season, and abstinence time.

Results: Men had a median sperm concentration and motility of 51.8 mill/ml and 64% respectively. Higher prepubertal serum TCDD levels (median of 2.9 pg TEQ/g lipid) were associated with lower semen parameters. The adjusted difference (95% CI) in percent change in sperm concentration, total sperm count, and total motile sperm count between the lowest and highest quartile was −39.7% (−60.5, −8.9), −32.9% (−59.5, 10.9), and −36.4% (−63.8, 11.6) respectively. Data are being analyzed for pubertal predictors of semen quality.

Conclusions: This is one of the first prospectively designed studies to follow a large cohort of boys annually from prepuberty until adulthood and collect semen samples. Higher serum dioxins at 8–9 years are associated with lower semen parameters at age 18 years indicating that the prepubertal period is a sensitive window of exposure to EDCs for sperm quality.

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