Background: Several studies have investigated the effects of organochlorine (OC) pesticides on adverse reproductive outcomes. However, few previous studies explored their effects on sex hormones.

Objective: To examine the association between serum concentrations of OC pesticides and levels of sex hormones in adult population in a rural area in Brazil heavily contaminated with these pesticides.

Methods: A cross-sectional study with 304 men and 300 women was undertaken. Wet weight serum concentrations of 19 OC pesticides (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane [DDT] and hexachlorocyclohexane [HCH], among others) were determined in all participants. Testosterone levels were obtained for men and estradiol, progesterone, prolactin, luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) for women. Associations between OC pesticides and sex hormones were evaluated using linear regression models.

Results: Prevalence of women with non-physiological hyperprolactinemia was 4%. After adjusting for serum lipids and confounders, heptachlor and o,p'-DDT concentrations in men were associated with lower testosterone levels, while peri- and postmenopausal women (N=77) showed inverse associations between LH and hexachlorobenzene (HCB), p,p'-DDT, p,p'-DDD (dichloro-diphenyl-dichloroethane), endosulfan 1 and 2, aldrin and mirex, as well as between FSH and p,p'-DDD, endosulfan 1 and aldrin. Premenopausal women (N=210) did not show statistically significant associations between OC pesticides and sex hormones.

Conclusions: Inverse associations between OC pesticide concentrations and testosterone in men and LH and FSH in peri-/postmenopausal women, together with the high proportion of women with elevated prolactin, suggest that these OC compounds may have triggered anti-androgenic effects in men and estrogenic effects in women in this population.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2013.07.012DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

pesticides sex
12
sex hormones
12
association serum
8
organochlorine pesticides
8
heavily contaminated
8
area brazil
8
serum concentrations
8
concentrations pesticides
8
women
8
testosterone levels
8

Similar Publications

Dermal Exposure to Agrochemicals as Risk Factor for Skin Cancer in Farmers and Ranchers in the US Central States.

Am J Ind Med

December 2024

Department of Environmental, Agricultural, and Occupational Health, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, USA.

Background: Farm operators are at a high risk of developing skin cancer due to their occupational sun exposure. With the growing incidence of skin cancer, it is also important to evaluate other occupational risk factors. Farm operators confront numerous physical, chemical, and biological hazards in their work environment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Transcriptomic resources for Bagrada hilaris (Burmeister), a widespread invasive pest of Brassicales.

PLoS One

December 2024

Invasive Insect Biocontrol and Behavior Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America.

The bagrada bug, Bagrada hilaris (Burmeister), is an emerging agricultural pest in the Americas, threatening agricultural production in the southwestern United States, Mexico and Chile, as well as in the Old World (including Africa, South Asia and, more recently, Mediterranean areas of Europe). Substantive transcriptomic sequence resources for this damaging species would be beneficial towards understanding its capacity for developing insecticide resistance, identifying viruses that may be present throughout its population and identifying genes differentially expressed across life stages that could be exploited for biomolecular pesticide formulations. This study establishes B.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Prenatal exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may impact postnatal growth trajectories, increasing the risk of various diseases later in life. This issue is of particular concern in industrially contaminated areas, where environmental matrices contain mixtures of pollutants. This study aimed to evaluate the associations between cord serum concentrations of organochlorine pollutants (hexachlorobenzene-HCB and polychlorinated biphenyls-PCBs) and essential elements (EEs), and weight growth trajectories during the first year of life.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Validation and in silico function prediction of circtial1 as a novel marker of abnormal lung development in nitrofen-induced congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH).

Pediatr Surg Int

December 2024

Division of Pediatric Surgery, Department of Surgery, Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, and Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, AE402-820 Sherbrook Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3A 1S1, Canada.

Purpose: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are stable, non-coding RNAs with tissue- and developmental-specific expression making them suitable biomarkers for congenital anomalies. Current circRNA discovery pipelines have focused on human and mouse. We aim to bridge this gap by combining bioinformatics resources and used circtial1 as a model candidate in the nitrofen rat model of congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study evaluated temporally dynamic bioaccumulation, fates, and biotransformation of atrazine (ATZ) in bivalve hemolymph. Male and female mussels, Hyriopsis bialata, were exposed to ATZ at environmentally-relevant (0.02 and 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!