Analytical Determination of Heavy Metals in Human Seminal Plasma—A Systematic Review

Abstract

Infertility is a growing concerning health problem affecting around 15% of couples worldwide. Conventional semen parameters have limited accuracy for male infertility potential determination. Current advances in the understanding of male infertility indicate that environmental and occupational exposure to chemical contaminants are important etiological factors leading to infertility problems. In this context, some heavy metals (HMs) can be considered as endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs), thus altering the seminal quality. This systematic review aims to summarize the key points to detect and quantify HMs in human seminal plasma (SP) and the involved analytical tools. Our results showed that that for HM quantification, atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) were the most employed techniques while Zn, Cd, Pb, and Cr were the analytes most often detected. Fast, reliable, and sensitive quantification of EDCs in SP could be important for the development of accurate diagnostic and preventive strategies to address male infertility towards providing personalized therapy.

A new clustering model based on the seminal plasma/serum ratios of multiple trace element concentrations in male patients with subfertility

“…62 Second, this study is almost the only approach to assess the function of the accessory glands by measuring TEs; even in the last few years, no similar studies exist among the many studies, mainly from India and China, that investigated the relationship between TEs as environmental pollution and male subfertility despite the advancement in various measurement techniques. 13 In Japan, this study represents the first accomplishment in decades to examine TEs in a male with a subfertility population. 55 , 63 , 64 , 65 Third, this study applied unsupervised machine‐learning technology, specifically the K‐medoids method, which is known for its robustness against noise and outliers.…”

“…Recent advancements in measurement techniques have enabled a comprehensive analysis of numerous TEs. 13 Machine learning algorithms have also been used to identify potential patterns from multiple parameters. 14 Particularly, unsupervised cluster analysis has emerged as a method that does not focus solely on apparent information but can elucidate complex interrelations among various variables.…”

Electrochemical Detection of Cd2+, Pb2+, Cu2+ and Hg2+ with Sensors Based on Carbonaceous Nanomaterials and Fe3O4 Nanoparticles

“…These pollutants come mainly from mining and industrial activities, wastes from mining, smelting, metal refining and coal burning operations [ 12 , 13 , 14 ]. When heavy metals enter the environment, they come into direct contact with living organisms and begin to accumulate causing extremely dangerous manifestations such as damage to the digestive, renal, neuronal, cardiovascular, reproductive, visual analyzer systems and even molecular changes in the DNA [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. It is worth mentioning that there are also HMs that are essential for the body and maintenance of health, such as iron, zinc and copper, but even these can become toxic at high concentrations [ 19 , 20 ].…”

A New Advanced and Validated Method for the Determination of Potentially Toxic Metals and Trace and Ultra-Trace Elements in Peritoneal Fluid to Assess the Health Risks of Women with Gynecological Pathologies

“…Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) [ 22 , 23 ] and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) [ 24 , 25 ] are analytical techniques that are suitable for multielemental analysis of clinical samples. ICP-MS is considered to be the most suitable approach due to its high sensitivity and ability to provide extremely low limits of quantification for numerous analytes.…”