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Rare earths exposure and male infertility: the injury mechanism study of rare earths on male mice and human sperm

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Abstract

The weight; testis/body coefficient; levels of LDH, SDH, SODH, G-6PD, and testosterone; cell cycle; and cell apoptosis of the male mice were influenced after being treated with 200 mg/[kg/day] of rare earths suspension for 3 weeks. The “Raman fingerprints” of the human sperm DNA exposed to 0.040 mg/ml CeCl3 were very different from those of the untreated; the Raman bands at 789 cm−1 (backbone phosphodiester), PO4 backbone at 1,094 cm−1, methylene deformation mode at 1,221 cm−1, methylene deformation mode at 1,485 cm−1, and amide II at 1,612 cm−1, of which intensities and shifts were changed, might be the diagnostic biomarkers or potential therapeutic targets. The injury mechanism might be that the rare earths influence the oxidative stress and blood testosterone barrier, tangle the big biomolecule concurrently, which might cause the testicular cells and vascular system disorder and/or dysfunction, and at the same time change the physical and chemical properties of the sperm directly.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Hui-qing Zhong, the lab manager of MOE Key Laboratory of Laser Life Science & Institute of Laser Life Science, College of Biophotonics, South China Normal University.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Infertility and Sexual Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510631, China

    Jun Chen & Tao Qi

  2. School of Information and Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510006, China

    Jun Chen & Song-hao Liu

  3. Department of Urology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510631, China

    Heng-jun Xiao

  4. Guangdong Institute of Microbiology, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510070, China

    Di-ling Chen

  5. Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou, Jiangxi, 341000, China

    He-ming Long

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  1. Jun Chen
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  2. Heng-jun Xiao
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  3. Tao Qi
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  4. Di-ling Chen
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Correspondence to Di-ling Chen.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

Jun Chen and Heng-jun Xiao equally contributed to the article.

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Chen, J., Xiao, Hj., Qi, T. et al. Rare earths exposure and male infertility: the injury mechanism study of rare earths on male mice and human sperm. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 2076–2086 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3499-y

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