Polystyrene microplastics, especially those smaller than 10 μm, reduce male fertility in murine models, but whether they affect male reproduction in humans is poorly understood. Here, we studied polystyrene microplastics smaller than 10 μm in human semen samples and evaluated their toxicity to human sperm. We also tested the use of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles to remove nanoplastics and decrease their toxicity in human sperm. Results show that human semen is contaminated by approximately 3.57 ± 0.32 μg/mL polystyrene microplastics smaller than 10 μm. Polystyrene nanoplastics of 25–100 nm penetrate and damage human sperm at semen-relevant concentrations of 5 and 50 μg of nanoplastic per mL, while 0.5–10 μm polystyrene microplastics bind to the sperm. We also found that 25-nm polystyrene nanoplastics exhibited a synergistic toxicity with bisphenol A on human sperm. Nonetheless, we observed that environmental microplastics released from disposable paper cups do not pose a significant hazard to human sperm under our conditions. Furthermore, magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles can aggregate and coprecipitate with 25-nm polystyrene nanoplastics to eliminate their adverse effects on human sperm.

聚苯乙烯微塑料，尤其是小于 10 微米的聚苯乙烯微塑料，会降低小鼠模型中的雄性生育能力，但它们是否影响人类雄性生殖却知之甚少。在这里，我们研究了人类精液样本中小于 10 μm 的聚苯乙烯微塑料，并评估了它们对人类精子的毒性。我们还测试了使用磁性氧化铁纳米颗粒去除纳米塑料并降低其对人类精子的毒性。结果显示，人类精液被约 3.57 ± 0.32 μg/mL 小于 10 μm 的聚苯乙烯微塑料污染。 25-100 nm 的聚苯乙烯纳米塑料在与精液相关的浓度为每毫升 5 和 50 μg 纳米塑料时会穿透并损伤人类精子，而 0.5-10 μm 的聚苯乙烯微塑料则与精子结合。我们还发现25纳米聚苯乙烯纳米塑料与双酚A对人类精子表现出协同毒性。尽管如此，我们观察到，在我们的条件下，一次性纸杯释放的环境微塑料不会对人类精子造成重大危害。此外，磁性氧化铁纳米颗粒可以与25纳米聚苯乙烯纳米塑料聚集共沉淀，消除其对人类精子的不利影响。