[Spermicidal properties of major environmental pollutants assigned to polychlorbiphenyls class].

The authors considered accumulation of environmental pollutants assigned to polychlorbiphenyls class in fat tissue and reproductive organs of male rats, discovered major accumulation of the pollutants in epididymis, demonstrated significant changes in cellular contents and functional properties of sperm.

Gonadotoxic effect of polychlorobiphenyls.

The distribution of polychlorobiphenyls (environmental pollutants) in the reproductive organs and fatty tissues of rats was analyzed and selective accumulation of the toxicants in the epididymis, but not in the ovaries, was demonstrated. Reduction of the fertilizing activity of the ejaculate after chronic exposure to polychlorobiphenyls was detected. Mechanisms of spermatogenic dysfunction under conditions of high technogenic load are discussed.

[Spermatogenesis impairment by polychlorbiphenyls: endocrine and paracrine mechanisms of the damage]. / Narushenie spermatogeneza polokhlorbifenilami: éndokrinnye i parakrinnye mekhanizmy povrezhdeniia.

Possible role of changed contents of certain cytokines in the genesis of reproductive disorders was studied in an experiment with rats intoxicated chronically by polychlorbiphenyl (PCB) ecopollutants at the total doses of 0.3 g/kg of the body weight (0.05 LD50 and 3 g/kg of the body weight (0.5 LD50). The enzyme immunodetection was used to analyze blood serum, testicle tissues and sperm for interleukin-1beta, interleukin-6, interleukin-4, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and testosterone and estradiol. The experiment showed that chronic PCB intoxication significantly increases the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and decreases the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines on a background of a sharp testosterone reduction and inversion of the androgen-estrogen profile. Implications of these shifts to steroido- and spermatogenesis are discussed along with cell and molecular mechanisms of cytokine-mediate PCB intoxication.