ENDOCRINE DISRUPTING CHEMICALSAND MALE REPRODUCTION: A SPECIAL FOCUS ON ANTITHYROID DRUGS AND RECUPERATIVE EFFECTS OF Α-LIPOIC ACID

Male reproduction is controlled and coordinated by endocrine factors and therefore, even minute changes can able to interfere with the male fertility. Accumulation of data have shown that the humans are exposed to chemicals that can able to interfere with endocrine factors. Interestingly, published reports have shown that the continuous exposure to such chemicals occurs mainly due to their wide usage in a variety of personal care and daily products such as plastics, food, water, fertilizers, textiles, shampoos, toys and pharma drugs etc. In view of ongoing interest in exposure of humans to such agents and compromised male fertility, there is a major concern and attention towards the endocrine disrupting chemicals among the public, endocrinologists, andrologists and scientific community. These chemicals interfere with the endocrine functions via mimicking their structure, blocking the hormone receptor and/or function of genes and proteins that facilitate normal spermatogenesis and testosterone biosynthesis. The present review provides an overview of endocrine disrupting chemicals on male reproductive health with a special focus on thyroid hormone disrupting chemicals. The present review was categorized into three broad aspects. The first aspect deals with the endocrine disruption of spermatogenesis and steroidogenesis. The second aspect deals with the effect of thyroid hormone disrupting chemicals on testicular functions and the final aspect deals with the role of α-lipoic acid induced amelioration of male fertility efficacy against the thyroid hormone disrupting chemicals. Finally the challenges and gaps were highlighted.

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