Elsevier

Fertility and Sterility

Volume 93, Issue 1, 1 January 2010, Pages 130-140
Fertility and Sterility

Male factor
Environmental exposure to metals and male reproductive hormones: circulating testosterone is inversely associated with blood molybdenum

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2008.09.044Get rights and content
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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.

Key Words

Biomarkers
endocrine
epidemiology
exposure
fertility
metals

Cited by (0)

M.P.D. is a consultant for Genzyme, Omrix, Neomend, MedElute, Johnson and Johnson, Serono, Kytogenics, Takeda, ARC Pharmaceutical, and Synthemed; has a financial interest in Conceptus, Synthemed, and Advanced Reproductive Care; has received grant support from Johnson and Johnson, Boehringer Ingelheim, Serono, Jackson Laboratory, Meditrina Pharmaceuticals, Neurocrine Biosciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Veterans Affairs, and Wyeth. E.P. has received research funding from Ferring; is on the Evista advisory board for Eli Lilly; and is a speaker and has participated in multicenter trials for Wyeth. J.D.M. has nothing to disclose. M.G.R. has nothing to disclose. B.P. has nothing to disclose. V.P. has nothing to disclose. D.D. has nothing to disclose. N.P. has nothing to disclose. J.J.W. has nothing to disclose.

Supported by grant ES11856 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. J.D.M. is supported by a Young Clinical Scientist Award from the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute.