Environmental Health Perspectives: Air pollution causes brain inflammation and reduces sperm count

? Air pollution, especially fine particulate matter (PM2.

Compared with the coarser atmospheric particulate matter, PM2.

Many previous studies have found that air pollution increases the risk of obesity, diabetes and other diseases, and even affects fertility, but the exact mechanism of how air pollution causes these health conditions is not very clear

Recently, Zhekang Ying's team at the University of Maryland School of Medicine published a research paper titled PM2.

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Under stress conditions, the brain directly affects the reproductive organs, thereby affecting fertility and sperm count

Some previous studies have shown that the sperm count of mice exposed to air pollution will decrease, but they do not necessarily have testicular inflammation, which means that there may be other mechanisms that cause the sperm count to decrease

The research team conducted experiments on healthy mice and mice lacking the neuro-specific inflammation marker IKK2 in the brain.

The results of the experiment showed that the number of sperm in healthy mice was reduced when exposed to the polluted air, while the mice without the inflammatory marker IKK2 in the neurons did not show a reduction in sperm in the polluted air

The research team found that a specific type of neuron usually associated with sleep cycles and obesity is responsible for the reduction in sperm count due to air pollution.

The corresponding author of this study, Professor Ying Zhekang, said that the hypothalamus is the main bridge between the brain and the reproductive system.

Professor Ying Zhekang also said that the results of this study show that air pollution can cause damage to sperm counts, but this damage can be compensated by removing inflammatory markers in hypothalamic neurons, which shows that we can target therapies.

Approximately 92% of the world’s population lives in areas where the PM2.

Original source:

Lianglin Qiu, Minjie Chen, Xiaoke Wang, et al.