(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) It was recently discovered in a peer-reviewed study published last week in the official journal of the Society of Toxicology that human and canine testicles are teeming with microplastics, which could explain the global decline in male fertility.
The University of New Mexico researchers also studied 47 canine and 23 human testes, discovering that every single testicle contained microplastics and polyethylene.
The researchers chemically treated the testicle samples to dissolve the fat and proteins. After that, they spun each sample in an “ultracentrifuge, leaving a nugget of plastic at the bottom of a tube.” Then, they would heat “the plastic pellet in a metal cup to 600 degrees Celsius,” using “a mass spectrometer to analyze gas emissions as different types of plastic burned at specific temperatures.”
Eventually, the researchers found that the average concentration of microplastics in testicular tissue was 122.63 micrograms per gram in dogs and 328.44 micrograms per gram in humans.
“At the beginning, I doubted whether microplastics could penetrate the reproductive system. When I first received the results for dogs I was surprised. I was even more surprised when I received the results for humans,” Dr. Xiaozhong Yu, head of the research team, said.
One of the study’s authors, Matthew Campen, also said that the tiny particles are “shard-like, stabby bits,” Blaze Media reported.
The human testicles that were taken from the corpses of men between the ages of 16 and 88 had been chemically preserved such that their sperm count could not be measured.
However, researchers were able to assess whether higher plastic contamination in the dog’s testes corresponded with lower sperm counts, finding that high levels of PVC — the second-most prevalent polymer in dogs — correlated with a lower sperm count.
“The plastic makes a difference — what type of plastic might be correlated with potential function. PVC can release a lot of chemicals that interfere with spermatogenesis, and it contains chemicals that cause endocrine disruption,” Yu said.
The research team examined canine testicles because “dogs are closer to humans,” unlike rats and other animals.
“We don’t want to scare people. We want to scientifically provide the data and make people aware there are a lot of microplastics. We can make our own choices to better avoid exposures, change our lifestyle and change our behavior,” Yu said.
