In Vitro Effects of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles (TiONPs) on Cadmium Chloride (CdCl) Genotoxicity in Human Sperm Cells.

The environmental release of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiONPs) associated with their intensive use has been reported to have a genotoxic effect on male fertility. TiONP is able to bind and transport environmental pollutants, such as cadmium (Cd), modifying their availability and/or toxicity. The aim of this work is to assess the in vitro effect of TiONPs and cadmium interaction in human sperm cells Semen parameters, apoptotic cells, sperm DNA fragmentation, genomic stability and oxidative stress were investigated after sperm incubation in cadmium alone and in combination with TiONPs at different times (15, 30, 45 and 90 min). Our results showed that cadmium reduced sperm DNA integrity, and increased sperm DNA fragmentation and oxidative stress. The genotoxicity induced by TiONPs-cadmium co-exposure was lower compared to single cadmium exposure, suggesting an interaction of the substances to modulate their reactivity. The Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) computational method showed that the interaction between TiONPs and cadmium leads to the formation of a sandwich-like structure, with cadmium in the middle, which results in the inhibition of its genotoxicity by TiONPs in human sperm cells.