title: Blood testosterone in middle aged males heavily exposed to endocrine disruptors is decreasing more with HCB and p,p'-DDE related to BMI and lipids, but not with Σ15PCBs.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This work was aimed to evaluate the fundamental relations between the blood levels of testosterone (TEST) and persistent organochlorinated pollutants (POPs) related to body mass index (BMI) and blood lipids in a cohort of heavily exposed males from Eastern Slovakia.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 429 middle aged (41-55 years) males heavily exposed to POPs the levels of 15 polychlorinated biphenyl congeners (Σ15PCBs), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), and dichlorodiethyl-dichloroethylene (p,p'-DDE) were measured by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and the total testosterone (TEST) by electrochemiluminiscent immunoassay.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After classifying the values of BMI, TEST, HCB, p,p'-DDE, and Σ15PCBs in quintiles and evaluating mutual interrelations of individual quintile counts in pairs of variables with chi-square, statistically significant interrelation was found for BMI/TEST (<0.0001) and HCB/TEST (p<0.001), but not for p,p'-DDE/TEST (p<0.6036) and Σ15PCBs/TEST (p<0.3246). Moreover, highly significant negative correlation was found between HCB and TEST by means of both Pearson (p<0.01) and Spearman rank correlations (p<0.0001). However, similar correlations performed between p,p'-DDE and Σ15PCBs did not reveal statistical significance. Finally, highly significant positive correlations were found between HCB and BMI, age, total lipids, and triglycerides. However, these correlations were less significant for p,p'-DDE and not significant or even negligibly negative for Σ15PCBs. In contrast, correlations of TEST with BMI and lipid fractions were significantly negative.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It appears that HCB might play a role in a decrease of TEST in males with relatively narrow age range of males highly exposed to POPs. Highly significant positive correlation of HCB with BMI and blood lipids points out the role of BMI as an imaginary compartment closely related to the total body fat mass and representing a depot of POPs which is closely related to the level of POPs and lipids in blood. However, the differences in the affinity of individual POPs to BMI and blood lipids as well as the mechanism of their different relation to blood TEST levels remain to be still explained.
authors.affiliation: Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia. pavel.langer@savba.sk
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Langer
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kocan
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Drobna
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Susienkova
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Radikova
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Huckova
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Imrich
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Klimes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003633:Dichlorodiphenyl Dichloroethylene / Q000633:toxicity*; D052244:Endocrine Disruptors / Q000633:toxicity*; D004782:Environmental Health / Q000639:trends; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000633:toxicity; D005659:Fungicides, Industrial / Q000633:toxicity; D006581:Hexachlorobenzene / Q000633:toxicity*; D006801:Humans; D007006:Hypogonadism / Q000097:blood / Q000139:chemically induced*; D007306:Insecticides / Q000633:toxicity; D008055:Lipids / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000633:toxicity*; D018154:Slovakia; D013739:Testosterone / Q000097:blood / Q000172:deficiency*
chemical_list: D052244:Endocrine Disruptors; D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D005659:Fungicides, Industrial; D007306:Insecticides; D008055:Lipids; D013739:Testosterone; D003633:Dichlorodiphenyl Dichloroethylene; D006581:Hexachlorobenzene; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls