Study gives first direct evidence that estrogen chemicals affect sperm function

<br>VIENNA, Austria (AP) _ Researchers have found the first direct evidence that chemicals in the environment _ including some in foods such as peas and beer _ mimic the effect of the female sex hormone

Tuesday, July 2nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

VIENNA, Austria (AP) _ Researchers have found the first direct evidence that chemicals in the environment _ including some in foods such as peas and beer _ mimic the effect of the female sex hormone estrogen on the ability of sperm to fertilize eggs.

Scientists reported Tuesday at Europe's annual human reproduction conference that such chemicals seem to have a much more potent effect on sperm than estrogen found in the body, and that they might make sperm burn out before reaching the egg.

The study was conducted with mice, but experts say human sperm behave very similarly.

Studies have shown that estrogen-like chemicals can disrupt the development of the male reproductive system and reduce the production of sperm, but this is the first time scientists have shown they affect sperm itself. Whether the effect is strong enough to cause harm is uncertain.

Sperm expert Christopher Barratt, a professor of reproductive medicine at Birmingham University, said human sperm is even more sensitive to female sex hormones than mouse sperm.

``If the effect is true, it means you would need only extremely low levels in humans to affect sperm,'' said Barratt, who was not connected with the research.

Lynn Fraser, a professor of reproductive biology at King's College in London, tested the effects on sperm of three pseudo estrogen chemicals and compared the results with the action of natural estrogen found in the vagina.

The three environmental chemicals were genistein, found in soya, peas and other legume vegetables; 8-prenylnaringenin, found in beer, and nonylphenol, which is in products such as household cleaners, paint and pesticides.

Sperm goes through lots of changes between leaving the male and arriving at the egg. If it fails at any of those steps, it won't make it.

The final phase of sperm development, where its ability to fertilize is ``switched on,'' is called capacitation.

The process starts inside the female body, once the sperm has left the semen and started its journey to the womb through the cervical mucous. On average, it takes five hours to complete the process.

Capacitation involves a specific pattern of hyperactive wiggling. The outer layer of the sperm is also remodeled and the tail becomes more flexible, giving the sperm about 10 times more energy to help it propel itself.

Once the sperm reaches the uterus, it wiggles into the fallopian tube and makes its way to the oviduct, where it finally becomes quiet and stays for a day or two until it is summoned by the ovary. By this point, capacitation is complete.

In response to a signal from the ovary, the capacitated sperm travels farther up the tube to a location called the ampulla, where the egg is.

The sperm then docks onto a rubbery coat protecting the egg.

The docking triggers a cascade of events that end with the gradual rupturing of the cap over the head of the sperm, called the acrosome, which contains the enzymes it needs to penetrate the layer. The sperm then docks with the egg's shell and the tail stops swishing. The egg does the rest of the work from there.

Estrogen stimulates this process, but is not crucial to it.

The new research found that both the natural and the pseudo estrogens accelerated the capacitation process and rupturing of the sperm cap, but that the environmental chemicals did it much more quickly.

``All of these compounds stimulate, but if they keep on stimulating, at least some of the sperm will undergo an acrosome reaction (cap rupturing). Strategically, that's really not a good thing because once the sperm have undergone that reaction they can't fertilize, however much they can wiggle,'' Fraser said.

The important question is whether this harms fertility in real life.

``If the sperm capacitate and then acrosome react before an egg comes into view, they would be non-fertilizing, so the potential answer to that question would be yes,'' she said.

However, sperm are exposed to scores of substances on their way through the female tract, some of which encourage the transformation, others of which hold it back.

``If they are all interacting with the sperm, which lot is going to win out? If the environmental estrogens overcome the regulatory effects of those others, it would be bad news,'' Fraser said.