A recent paper has outlined one pathway that may explain the observed correlation between higher air pollution and lower sperm counts—namely, inflammation in particular neurons within a brain region known as the hypothalamus. In the study, published on Sept. 8 in Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) exposed groups of mice to air polluted with particulate matter. Some of those mice were bred without the brain inflammation marker inhibitor kappa B kinase 2 (IKK2), while others were bred with the marker. Polluted air didn’t lower sperm counts in mice lacking IKK2, while it did lower counts in mice with the marker, supporting a direct connection between brain inflammation and male fertility. The team delved deeper, seeking to learn if the hypothalamus alone was responsible for the link between air pollution, inflammation, and sperm count. They were interested in the hypothalamus because of its …
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