الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract A major challenge for life scientists in the 21st century is to understand how a changing environment impacts all life on earth. Over the past 20 years, a great deal of attention has focused on the impact of endocrine disruptors released in the environment on animal and human health. Generally, endocrine disruptors have estrogenic activity. These products interfere with hormone biosynthesis, metabolism, or action resulting in a deviation from normal homeostatic control or reproduction. Aim: Our primary aim was to evaluate the possible role of environmental estrogen on sexual disturbance among males. SUBJECTS & METHODS: A cross-sectional cohort community based study that recruited 26 apparently healthy males that agreed to participate in the study after explained details about the study and investigation that will be done and signed the informed consent for the study. We surveyed their characteristics of life style, symptoms covering various systems, general examination including blood pressure measurements, body mass index, waist line, resting blood pressure, Venous blood samples were used for detection of both total testosterone & plasma BuChE activity that is measured with a Test-mate ChE Randox kit from the hydrolysis of butyrylcholine iodide, and data were expressed as micromoles per minute per milliliter of plasma (U/ml). Evaluation of Test-mate ChE results was based on AChE and BuChE inhibition associated with different degrees. RESULTS: the mean age was (36.54 ± 6.04) years with mean BMI of (28.98 ± 5.16) kg/m2. , mean waist (102.78 ± 11.18) cm. 66.7% of the cases were married and 13.3% have fertility problem & 20% with sexual problem. 66.7% of the studied group use pesticide at home. The mean serving intake of fruit & vegetables /week were (2.65 ± 2.90) serving. CONCLUSION: Nearly all studied group had hormonal values and AChE within the reference range. There is a negative association between OP pesticides exposure assessed by the AchE as indicator and serum total testosterone levels as well as with fruit & vegetables consumption/week; whereas there is a positive association with age. Taken together, the epidemiologic data on the environmental EDCs suggest that there may be associations between exposure and adverse health outcomes in men. However, the limited human data, and in many instances inconsistent data across studies, highlight the need for further research on these chemicals. Future longitudinal molecular epidemiology studies with appropriately designed exposure assessments are needed to determine potential causal relationships, to identify the most important time windows/life stages of exposure, and to define individual susceptibility factors for adverse effects on men’s health in response to exposure. |