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Several studies have investigated temporal trends in semen quality in Northern Europe, but none has examined this question in Southern Europe. A prior study conducted in Almeria Province (Southern Spain) reported higher sperm count and concentration among Spanish young men recruited from 2001 to 2002 compared with young men from Northern Europe. The aim of this new study was to examine whether semen quality has changed among Spanish young men in the last decade. In this cross-sectional study, questionnaires and semen samples were collected from 215 healthy young university students from Murcia Region between 2010 and 2011. The 273 men from the Almeria study previously studied were included in a trend analysis of the two populations from Southern Spain. Descriptive statistics were calculated for the Murcia study population and these and semen variables for the Murcia and Almeria study populations were compared. Study methods and population characteristics were similar across the two studies. Therefore, we used multiple linear regression analyses on the combined population (controlling for study centre, age, ejaculation abstinence time, season, smoking, medication during the last 3 months, Body mass index (BMI), presence of varicocoele and prenatal exposure to tobacco) to look for a birth-cohort effect over the combined study period (2001-2011). Sperm concentration and total sperm count declined significantly with year of birth in the pooled analysis (β = −0.04 and β = −0.06, respectively, both p < 0.01). Sperm counts were significantly lower in Murcia study subjects than in the Almeria participants; sperm concentration median (5th-95th) = 44.0 (8.9-129) million/mL vs. 51.0 (5.0-206) million/mL; p < 0.01 and total sperm count = 121 (17.8-400) million vs. 149 (8.0-599) million; p < 0.01. Other semen variables did not differ significantly between the two studies. Our study suggests that total sperm count and sperm concentration may have declined in young Spanish men over the last decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bottled water consumption is a putative source of human exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Research has been conducted on the presence of chemicals with estrogen-like activity in bottled waters and on their estrogenicity, but few data are available on the presence of hormonal activities associated with other nuclear receptors (NRs). The aim of this study was to determine the presence of endocrine activities dependent on the activation of human estrogen receptor alpha (hERa) and/or androgen receptor (hAR) in water in glass or plastic bottles sold to consumers in Southern Spain. Hormone-like activities were evaluated in 29 bottled waters using receptor-specific bioassays based on reporter gene expression in PALM cells [(anti-)androgenicity] and cell proliferation assessment in MCF-7 cells [(anti-)estrogenicity] after optimized solid phase extraction (SPE). All of the water samples analyzed showed hormonal activity. This was estrogenic in 79.3% and anti-estrogenic in 37.9% of samples and was androgenic in 27.5% and anti-androgenic in 41.3%, with mean concentrations per liter of 0.113 pM 17β-estradiol (E 2 ) equivalent units (E 2 Eq), 11.01 pM anti-estrogen (ICI 182780) equivalent units (ICI 182780Eq), 0.33 pM methyltrienolone (R1881) equivalent units (R1881Eq), and 0.18 nM procymidone equivalent units (ProcEq). Bottled water consumption contributes to EDC exposure. Hormone-like activities observed in waters from both plastic and glass bottles suggest that plastic packaging is not the sole source of contamination and that the source of the water and bottling process may play a role, among other factors. Further research is warranted on the cumulative effects of long-term exposure to low doses of EDCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]