Abstract
There is an abundance of epidemiological evidence and animal experiments concerning the correlation between cadmium exposure and adverse male reproductive health outcomes. However, the evidence remains inconclusive. We conducted a literature search from PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science over the past 3 decades. Pooled r and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were derived from Cd levels of the type of biological materials and different outcome indicators to address the large heterogeneity of existing literature. Cd was negatively correlated with semen parameters (r = − 0.122, 95% CI − 0.151 to − 0.092) and positively correlated with sera sex hormones (r = 0.104, 95% CI 0.060 to 0.147). Among them, Cd in three different biological materials (blood, semen, and urine) was negatively correlated with semen parameters, while among sex hormones, only blood and urine were statistically positively correlated. In subgroup analysis, blood Cd was negatively correlated with semen density, sperm motility, sperm morphology, and sperm count. Semen Cd was negatively correlated with semen concentration. As for serum sex hormones, blood Cd had no statistical significance with three hormones, while semen Cd was negatively correlated with testosterone. In summary, cadmium exposure might be associated with the risk of a decline in sperm quality and abnormal levels of sex hormones.
Graphical Abstract
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Data are available from corresponding authors upon a reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- BCd:
-
Blood cadmium
- Cd:
-
Cadmium
- CI:
-
Confidence intervals
- E2 :
-
Estradiol
- FSH:
-
Follicle-stimulating hormone
- HMs:
-
Heavy metal
- LH:
-
Luteinizing hormone
- NOS:
-
Newcastle–Ottawa Scale
- SHBG:
-
Sex hormone-binding globulin
- T:
-
Testosterone
- TC:
-
Testicular cancer
- TDS:
-
Testicular dysgenesis syndrome
- UCd:
-
Urine cadmium
- WHO:
-
World Health Organization
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This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant numbers [82273598]) and the Nature Science Research Project of Anhui Province (Grant number [2108085MH305]).
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XG and JXZ contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by XG, GYL, XCP, JJX, DY, YX, and XR. The first draft of the manuscript was written by XG, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Gao, X., Li, G., Pan, X. et al. Environmental and occupational exposure to cadmium associated with male reproductive health risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis based on epidemiological evidence. Environ Geochem Health 45, 7491–7517 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-023-01719-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-023-01719-0