Smoking cigarettes is associated with increased sperm disomy in teenage men

• Published in: Fertility and sterility Vol. 70; no. 4; pp. 715 - 723
• Main Authors: Rubes, Jiřı́, Lowe, Xiu, Moore, Dan, Perreault, Sally, Slott, Valerie, Evenson, Donald, Selevan, Sherry G, Wyrobek, Andrew J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.10.1998
• Subjects: Adolescent; Alcohol Drinking - adverse effects; Aneuploidy; Caffeine - adverse effects; CASA; Chromatin - ultrastructure; Cigarette-smoking lifestyle; Humans; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; Male; multicolor sperm FISH; Reference Values; SCSA; semen quality; Smoking - adverse effects; Sperm Count; sperm disomy; Sperm Motility; Spermatozoa - pathology; Statistics, Nonparametric; urine cotinine; Videotape Recording; sperm disomy; CASA; urine cotinine; multicolor sperm FISH; SCSA; semen quality; Cigarette-smoking lifestyle
• ISSN: 0015-0282; 1556-5653
• DOI: 10.1016/S0015-0282(98)00261-1

Objective: To determine whether moderate cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption in teenage men is associated with increases in disomic sperm and detectable changes in semen quality. Design: Cohort study. Setting: Military recruiting station, Teplice, Czech Republic. Patient(s): Ten current smokers (20 cigarettes per day for at least 2 years, exposure confirmed by urine cotinine) who also consumed alcohol and 15 nonsmokers. All patients were exactly 18 years old, healthy, and of unproven fertility. Main Outcome Measure(s): Sperm aneuploidy by multicolor fluorescence in situ hybridization for chromosomes 8, X, and Y; conventional semen analyses; computer-aided sperm analysis for motility; and sperm chromatin structure analysis. Results: Smokers showed elevated frequencies of sperm aneuploidy (Y disomy, P <0.001; aggregate of X, Y, and 8 disomies, P <0.01); reduced linearity of sperm motion ( P <0.05); and more “round-headed” sperm ( P <0.01). Smokers’ semen contained fewer sperm ( P <0.001) and fewer motile sperm ( P <0.02), which was attributable, in part, to shorter abstinence intervals among smokers ( P <0.02). Conclusion(s): Cigarette smoking among teenagers was associated with increases in disomic sperm and a diminution in specific aspects of semen quality. Such defects may affect male fertility and may increase future chances of fathering offspring with aneuploidy syndromes.