Direct Action of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals on Human Sperm

Overview

Journal EMBO Rep

Specialty Molecular Biology

Date 2014 May 14

PMID 24820036

Citations 59

Authors

Christian Schiffer

Astrid Muller

Dorte L Egeberg

Luis Alvarez

Christoph Brenker

Anders Rehfeld

Hanne Frederiksen

Benjamin Waschle

U Benjamin Kaupp

Melanie Balbach

Dagmar Wachten

Niels E Skakkebaek

Kristian Almstrup

Timo Strunker

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Synthetic endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), omnipresent in food, household, and personal care products, have been implicated in adverse trends in human reproduction, including infertility and increasing demand for assisted reproduction. Here, we study the action of 96 ubiquitous EDCs on human sperm. We show that structurally diverse EDCs activate the sperm-specific CatSper channel and, thereby, evoke an intracellular Ca(2+) increase, a motility response, and acrosomal exocytosis. Moreover, EDCs desensitize sperm for physiological CatSper ligands and cooperate in low-dose mixtures to elevate Ca(2+) levels in sperm. We conclude that EDCs interfere with various sperm functions and, thereby, might impair human fertilization.

Citing Articles

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