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Free keywords:
Ca2+ signalling; CatSper; endocrine disrupting chemical; human sperm
Abstract:
Synthetic endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), omnipresent in
food, household, and personal care products, have been implicated
in adverse trends in human reproduction, including infertility and
increasing demand for assisted reproduction. Here, we study the
action of 96 ubiquitous EDCs on human sperm. We show that
structurally diverse EDCs activate the sperm-specific CatSper
channel and, thereby, evoke an intracellular Ca2+ increase, a motility response, and acrosomal exocytosis. Moreover, EDCs desensitize sperm for physiological CatSper ligands and cooperate in
low-dose mixtures to elevate Ca2+ levels in sperm. We conclude
that EDCs interfere with various sperm functions and, thereby,
might impair human fertilization.