Effects of paternal electromagnetic pulse exposure on the reproductive endocrine function of male offspring: a pilot study

Abstract

Many studies indicate that parental exposure to an electromagnetic field (EMF) can cause long-term toxicity to the health of the offspring. While concerns have been focused on maternal influence, much less is known regarding the effects of paternal factors. Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is a special and widely used type of EMF. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of paternal EMP exposure on the reproductive endocrine function of the male rat offspring. Male Sprague Dawley rats were randomly exposed to EMP at 200 kV m⁻¹ for 0, 100 or 400 pulses before mating. The adult male offspring were sacrificed and the structural changes of testes, levels of serum steroid hormones, sperm characteristics, reproductive behaviors, content of the reproductive endocrine-related neurotransmitter GABA and expression of the GABA_A receptor were analyzed. The results showed that paternal exposure induced a decrease of testosterone (T), sperm quantity and acrosin activity in the male offspring (p < 0.05). It did not show significant changes in the structure of testes, sperm deformity frequency and reproductive behaviors compared with the sham-exposed group. The content of GABA and the protein and mRNA expression of the hypothalamic GABA_A receptor protein increased in the EMP exposure group (p < 0.05). In conclusion, our study shows that under these experimental conditions EMP had a certain degree of influence on the reproductive endocrine function of the male rat offspring, and the hypothalamic GABA_A receptor may be involved in the reproductive toxicity of the male offspring.