Abstract
The role of environmental factors in influencing health status is well documented. Heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, pesticides, ultrafine particles, produced by human activities put a strain on the body’s entire defense system. Therefore, together with public health measures, evidence-based individual resilience measures are necessary to mitigate cancer risk under environmental stress and to prevent reproductive dysfunction and non-communicable diseases; this is especially relevant for workers occupationally exposed to pollutants and/or populations residing in highly polluted areas. The Mediterranean diet is characterized by a high intake of fruits and vegetables rich in flavonoids, that can promote the elimination of pollutants in tissues and fluids and/or mitigate their effects through different mechanisms. In this review, we collected evidence from pre-clinical and clinical studies showing that the impairment of male fertility and gonadal development, as well as cancers of reproductive system, due to the exposure of organic and inorganic pollutants, may be counteracted by flavonoids.
Highlights
In recent decades, the role of environmental factors in influencing population health has become increasingly evident, so that chemical and physical pollutants are considered the most important public health threat, whose effects, including transgenerational ones, come to be well reported in the scientific literature [1]
Physiological processes of normal cells can be altered by pollutants leading to cancer infertility
The results displayed that in comparison with bisphenol A (BPA) group, CCFs were able to markedly increase the serum content of testosterone (T), estradiol (E2), the transcript levels of DNA methyltransferase 3A (Dnmt3A), Dnmt3B and that of estrogen receptor alpha (ERα). These findings suggested that CCFs could lower the levels of ERα and H19/Igf2 gene methylation by suppressing DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) expression, decreasing reproductive hormone and receptor levels in adult males, and mitigating the adverse effect of BPA on testicular development in male mice [203]
Summary
The role of environmental factors in influencing population health has become increasingly evident, so that chemical and physical pollutants are considered the most important public health threat, whose effects, including transgenerational ones, come to be well reported in the scientific literature [1]. The reproductive system appears to be sensitive to environmental stresses in humans [8]; including the increased susceptibility to pollutants [9]. Adult exposure to EDC (e.g., in highly polluted environments) may affect spermatoinducing impaired sperm production, including systemic diseases and genetic factors such genesis and male fertility.and. The properties of flavonoids will be explored in the context of the Mediterranean diet model highlighting their role in mitigating the long-term effects of pollutants on human health with particular attention to reproductive system cancer and male infertility
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