Sunday, 22 July 2012

Study finds Lead in Patancheru battery units affect male fertility

U Sudhakar Reddy
Toxicology lab of Osmania University College for Women study on the 
semen mobility of workers at Patancheru battery manufacturing units found that lead is 
causing infertility among them. Researchers say Lead compound interferes with the 
testicular function, inducing its activity and also by exerting its effect on sperm DNA, 
leading to fragmentation. Study also found that antioxidant treatment with Vitamin C may 
offer   protection against the DNA damage, which is a major cause of male infertility.
The research paper was titled ”Clinical Relevance of Vitamin C Among Lead-Exposed 
Infertile Men” Ms K Vani , M Kurakula , Syed R and Alharbi K was published by National 
Centre for Biotechnology Information of US.


In the study the researchers targeted 120 male workers occupationally exposed to lead 
from a battery-manufacturing industry situated at the Patancheru industrial area in the 
city outskirts to to see the impact of lead on testicular dysfunction with reference to 
infertility.
“Further, the study was designed to see effect of an antioxidant in the form of vitamin 
C, administered at the dose of 1000 mg per day for five consecutive days in a week for 3 
months,”

Researchers collected the blood samples and semen samples were collected from 120 men in 
the study group exposed to lead, and 120 healthy human beings, who have no history of 
exposures to chemicals, with their consent. The workers are aged from 25 to 55 years. The 
conventional semen analysis and the measure of sperm DNA fragmentation were done. After 
vitamin C administration industrial workers showed increased in sperm mobility and total 
count and decreased in abnormal sperms.

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