Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are environmental organic pollutants widely used in industry that can bioaccumulate and affect the reproductive systems of male animals of different species. 2,3',4,4',5-Pentachlorobiphenyl (PCB118) is a representative of the 209 toxic PCB congeners. In this study, male mice were exposed to PCB118 at 0, 50, and 500 μg/kg/day for 35 days beginning 3-4 weeks after birth. The results of the study showed that PCB118 exposure during puberty reduced testicular quality, caused tissue damage, decreased sperm motility and sperm count, and increased malformation and testicular cell apoptosis in mice. Moreover, PCB118 increased the oxidative stress levels in the sperm and testicular tissue, the expression of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) and Cyp1a1 increased, and nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) decreased significantly. It is speculated that PCB118 can activate the AhR/Cyp1a1 pathway and inhibit Nrf2 expression to aggravate testicular oxidative stress and induce cell apoptosis, resulting in testicular and sperm quality damage.

多氯联苯 (PCB) 是工业中广泛使用的环境有机污染物，可以生物蓄积并影响不同物种雄性动物的生殖系统。2,3',4,4',5-五氯联苯(PCB118)是209种有毒PCB同系物的代表。在这项研究中，雄性小鼠暴露于 0、50 和 500 的 PCB118 μg/kg/天，从出生后 3-4 周开始持续 35 天。研究结果表明，青春期接触 PCB118 会降低小鼠的睾丸质量，造成组织损伤，精子活力和精子数量下降，并增加小鼠的畸形和睾丸细胞凋亡。此外，PCB118增加了精子和睾丸组织中的氧化应激水平，芳烃受体（AhR）和Cyp1a1的表达增加，核因子-红细胞2相关因子2（Nrf2）显着降低。推测PCB118可激活AhR/Cyp1a1通路，抑制Nrf2表达，加重睾丸氧化应激，诱导细胞凋亡，导致睾丸和精子质量受损。