Fipronil and its metabolites in human seminal plasma from Shijiazhuang, north China. (February 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Xu, Ziyuan; Wan, Yanjian; Xia, Wei; Zhou, Lixiao; Wang, Aizhen; Shi, Lisha; Guo, Yinsheng; He, Zhenyu; Xu, Shunqing; Zhang, Rong
• Is Part Of: Chemosphere. Volume 289(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-02
• Subjects: Fipronil desulfinyl -- Fipronil sulfone -- Insecticide -- Seminal plasma -- Semen quality; Pollution -- Periodicals; Pollution -- Physiological effect -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Periodicals; Atmospheric chemistry -- Periodicals; 551.511
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.133238
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0045-6535

Abstract

Abstract: Fipronil (FP) is an emerging insecticide which could induce reproductive toxicity in male rats at very low dosage, but the occurrence of FP and its transformation products (FPs) in human seminal plasma and their impacts on human semen quality have not been documented. In this study, FPs including FP, fipronil desulfinyl (FP-DES), fipronil sulfone (FP-SFO), fipronil amide (FP-AM), and fipronil sulfide (FP-SFI), were measured in seminal plasma samples ( n = 200), which were collected from Shijiazhuang, north China. The cumulative concentration of FPs (ΣFPs), in the seminal plasma samples ranged from 0.003 to 0.180 ng/mL (median: 0.043 ng/mL). FP-SFO was the major target analyte (median: 0.040 ng/mL), accounting for approximately 42.3–100.0% of the ΣFPs. Significantly higher exposure levels of FPs were found in the overweight or obese group (≥25 kg/m 2 ) vs. the normal BMI group (18.5–25 kg/m 2 ) (ΣFPs: 0.047 vs. 0.033 ng/mL), never smoking group vs. current smoking group (ΣFPs: 0.057 vs. 0.037 ng/mL), and low sexual frequency group (<1 time/week) vs. high sexual frequency group (≥3 times/week) (ΣFPs: 0.048 vs. 0.030 ng/mL). No significant association between FPs and impaired semen quality parameter was found in this study. This is the first time to report FPs' occurrence in human seminal plasma and variations in their concentrations among people with different demographic and behavioral characteristics. Further studies on adverse effects of exposure to FPs on reproductive function are needed. Graphical abstract: Image 1 Highlights: The first report on occurrence of fipronil and its metabolites in seminal plasma. FP-SFO and FP-DES were ubiquitous in seminal plasma. Seminal FPs' levels were related to BMI, education level, and abstinence period. The first exploration on the association between seminal FPs and semen quality.