Studies of non-occupational exposure to trace elements (TE) and semen quality have had inconsistent results, and few studies have accounted for temporal variability or TE mixtures. To help address the data gap, we quantified associations between seminal plasma (SP) trace element concentrations and sperm quality measures among male partners of in vitro fertilization patients. We collected semen samples from 27 male partners an average of 8.6 days prior to the day of oocyte retrieval (time 1), and from 35 male partners on the day of oocyte retrieval (time 2). We determined concentrations of 14 TEs in SP using inductively coupled plasma-tandem mass spectrometry. We used linear mixed-effects regression to estimate associations between individual TEs, expressed as the change in sperm quality between the 25th and 75th percentiles of trace element distributions, adjusted for age, days between specimen collections, racial identity, recent seafood consumption, and cigarette smoking. We used principal component analysis (PCA) to estimate associations with TE mixtures at time 2. We found positive associations between SP Se and sperm concentration (%change = 47.75%; 95% CI: 4.20, 85.65) and motile sperm concentration (%change = 44.30%; 95% CI: 5.10, 88.75), and similar associations for SP As (%change = 30.50%; 95% CI: 6.85, 54.15 and %change = 25.15%, 95% CI: 12.55, 30.35, respectively). The PCA mixture of higher SP Cd, As, and Mo and lower Cu and Se suggests a pattern of poor sperm quality, though the associations were not statistically significant. Our findings underscore the importance of considering temporal variability of seminal plasma TE concentrations and suggest potentially important associations between exposure to essential TEs and semen quality which should be targeted for further investigation, including Se and As.
Mohsin et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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