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Various degrees of environmental epigenetic effects on human health. Epigenetic modifications are sensitive to environmental factors. During spermatogenesis, environmental exposures at sensitive windows may likely alter the epigenetic patterns of sperm, which further causes impaired fertilization, spontaneous abortions or epigenetic associated diseases in offspring.
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Increasing evidences indicate that chronic diseases in offspring may be the result of ancestral environmental exposures. Exposures to environmental compounds in windows of epigenetic susceptibility have been shown to promote epigenetic alterations that can be inherited between generations. DNA methylation, histone modifications, and noncoding RNAs...
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The major biological function of the sperm cell is to transmit the paternal genetic and epigenetic information to the embryo as well as the following offspring. Sperm has a unique epigenome. An increasing body of epidemiological study supports that paternal stress induced by environmental exposures and lifestyle can modulate the sperm epigenome (in...
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... However, given that a healthy environment and the mother's lifestyle are crucial for the offspring's health, and the utero window represents a field of study of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) [110,111], the Paternal Origins of Health and Disease paradigm (POHaD) should be taken into serious consideration [112][113][114][115][116][117][118]. Nevertheless, in spite of having few epidemiological studies on humans, the perspective opening the systematic study of reproductive biomarkers in environmental impact assessment and early and predictive health risk assessment is enormous [107]. ...
Endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) as emerging pollutants and multi-target agents have accumulated in the environment at concentration levels inducing significant effects on planet and obviously on all living species so that public concern about the impact of EDCs is constantly growing.
Moreover, there are many contaminants in the environment which have never been examined. Even low-level exposure to these chemicals can have significant effects, and the same dose response can have different effects on individuals. Furthermore, the cumulative effects of these chemicals are yet to be studied, thus the effect on human beings is not fully understood. Anyway the health consequences of these chemicals have been particularly studied on reproductive system. Male reproductive health, especially, has represented ideal target for analysing the effects and mechanisms of damage to health of these chemical compounds. This field of health is, indeed, critical for the future of society, not only for interdisciplinary approach of several specialists and institutions involved but also for the educational mission of new generations especially in the vulnerable adolescent period; a mission, about lifestyle, diet, behaviour, personal and social awareness to reduce the exposure to EDCs and prevent non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In this chapter, we will discuss policy Implication and Community Interventions to reduce EDCs Exposure for minimisation health damages in the frame of more recent knowledge on these contaminants and proposing how hazard-based approach to guide and reach the regulations should be preferred to the risk-based one. This approach is particularly important to safeguard the male and female reproductive system, which is the most exposed one to environmental stress.
... I preparati biodinamici e l'approccio alla gestione biodinamica, in sintonia con i calendari cosmici, hanno mantenuto un elevato livello di proteine nel grano. Negli Stati Uniti invece, il contenuto proteico del grano tenero rosso è diminuito dal 13 all'8%, così come la vitalità delle colture è diminuita dopo decenni di pratiche agricole industriali 8 . ...
... Questo aumento di patologie oncologiche infantili essendo, ovviamente, breve il tempo di esposizione ad agenti inquinanti, pare spiegarsi con alterazioni epigenetiche indotte nel periodo embrio-fetale e quindi nell'alterazione del "fetal programming" e/o con alterazioni epigenetiche trasmesse già dai gameti nel preconcepimento ed, in particolare, il gamete maschile, per la maggiore suscettibilità agli stress endogeni ed esogeni, potrebbe avere un ruolo preminente rispetto a quello femminile nel determinare lo stato di salute della progenie [7][8][9]. ...
Il 36° Convegno internazionale di agricoltura biodinamica “Un’agricoltura
di salute. Ricerca, innovazione e formazione” si è svolto a Firenze, in collaborazione con l’Istituto di Formazione APAB e Demeter Italia, nei giorni 12 novembre,
30 novembre e 10 dicembre 2020. I numerosi relatori coinvolti attraverso questo convegno hanno dato evidenza che l’agricoltura biodinamica rappresenta una possibilità concreta per fondare l’agricoltura ecologica su basi comuni condivise. Si sono definiti i passi che la bioagricoltura deve compiere per un’evoluzione radicale, che porti idee libere, relazioni giuste, economie solidali. Il tema del 36° convegno nasce dalla constatazione che le correlazioni tra cibo e salute, appaiono evidenti e lo sono ancora di più nella grave crisi sanitaria che stiamo attraversando. Durante i primi mesi della pandemia il consumo di alimenti biodinamici in Italia è cresciuto spontaneamente del 14%. Di questa scelta
popolare danno ragione le ricerche scientifiche, che indicano negli alimenti biodinamici una presenza maggiore di sostanze antiossidanti e antinfiammatorie, con
un effetto antibatterico e antivirale. Il convegno ha posto l’attenzione sul valore
del lavoro degli agricoltori biodinamici per la salute umana e dell’ambiente ma ha
voluto anche sostenere la collaborazione tra contadini e ricercatori impegnati per
il futuro della Terra e supportare gli agricoltori nel miglioramento delle proprie
tecniche. Agricoltori, scienziati ed economisti da diversi atenei europei, insieme a
medici ed esponenti dell’agricoltura tra i più autorevoli del paese hanno presentato
i dati e le soluzioni per lo sviluppo di un modello italiano del Green deal UE, grazie
alla biodinamica.
... The World health Organization (WHO) estimates that about a quarter of diseases is due to prolonged exposure to environmental pollutants 19,20 , including cardiovascular and chronic degenerative disease, premature deaths and reproduction dysfunctions 19,[21][22][23] along with lifestyle, as reported in the European Code against Cancer 24 . Moreover, environmental pollutants can increase susceptibility to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and determine a significant decline in body's defences, possibly due to also transgenerational effects that may partly explain the worldwide disease burden consisting not only in non-communicable but also communicable diseases (dengue, yellow fever, tuberculosis, etc.) [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] . Furthermore, it shows that this is transmitted to the following generations, by reducing the defence ability toward viral pathogens 26 . ...
High levels of air pollution can contribute to high rate of the COVID-19 outbreaks. Air pollutants induce oxidative stress, inflammatory process, immune imbalance and coagulation at systemic level, making the organism susceptible to complications caused by various pathogens, including viruses, resulting in a possible important damage co-factor. Sperm cells are highly sensitive to the pro-oxidant effects of environmental pollutants, and may represent an important alarm bell indicating that the burden of environmental pressure in a certain area is causing damage to humans. A comparison of the maps of COVID-19 case fatality rates, male infertility rates and air pollution may suggest a way to understand the dynamics of the virus impact. Semen quality may be considered as an early and sensitive environmental marker, and also a potential susceptibility indicator to viral insults (including SARS-CoV-2 ) in heavily polluted areas. Therefore, assessing the burden of environmental exposure of a given population and its potential susceptibility to insults through early biological stress indicators may be helpful for predicting the risk of the adverse effects by the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic .
... The World health Organization (WHO) estimates that about a quarter of diseases is due to prolonged exposure to environmental pollutants 19,20 , including cardiovascular and chronic degenerative disease, premature deaths and reproduction dysfunctions 19,[21][22][23] along with lifestyle, as reported in the European Code against Cancer 24 . Moreover, environmental pollutants can increase susceptibility to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and determine a significant decline in body's defences, possibly due to also transgenerational effects that may partly explain the worldwide disease burden consisting not only in non-communicable but also communicable diseases (dengue, yellow fever, tuberculosis, etc.) [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] . Furthermore, it shows that this is transmitted to the following generations, by reducing the defence ability toward viral pathogens 26 . ...
High levels of air pollution can contribute to high rate of the COVID-19 outbreaks. Air pollutants induce oxidative stress, inflammatory process, immune imbalance and coagulation at systemic level, making the organism susceptible to complications caused by various pathogens, including viruses, resulting in a possible important damage co-factor. Sperm cells are highly sensitive to the pro-oxidant effects of environmental pollutants, and represent an important alarm bell indicating how the burden of environmental pressure in a certain area is becoming increasingly unsustainable. We underline that overlapping among maps of case fatality rate of COVID-19, male infertility rate and air pollution can be a challenging idea to understand the dynamics of the virus impact, considering semen quality that is an early and sensitive environmental marker, and could be a potential susceptibility indicator to viral insults (including SARS-CoV-2 ) in heavily polluted areas. So that, assessing the burden of environmental exposure of a given population and its potential susceptibility to insults through early biological stress indicators able to predict the probability, nature and magnitude for the adverse effects is a major public health challenge.
DNA of human spermatozoa can be subject to various kinds of modifications acquired throughout life. Put simply, two basic types of acquired sperm DNA modifications can be distinguished: genetic and epigenetic. Genetic modifications cause alterations of the DNA sequence and mainly result from the formation of breakpoints leading to sperm DNA fragmentation. Epigenetic modifications include a vast spectrum of events that influence the expression of different genes without altering their DNA sequence. Both the genetic and the epigenetic modifications of sperm DNA can negatively influence embryonic development, cause miscarriages, and be the origin of different health problems for the offspring. As to sperm DNA fragmentation, reliable diagnostic methods are currently available. On the other hand, the detection of potentially harmful epigenetic modifications in spermatozoa is a much more complicated issue. Different treatment options can be chosen to solve problems associated with sperm DNA fragmentation. Some are relatively simple and noninvasive, based on oral treatments with antioxidants and other agents, depending on the underlying cause. In other cases, the recourse to different micromanipulation-assisted in vitro fertilisation techniques is necessary to select spermatozoa with minimal DNA damage to be injected into oocytes. The treatment of cases with epigenetic DNA modifications is still under investigation. Preliminary data suggest that some of the techniques used in cases of extensive DNA fragmentation can also be of help in those of epigenetic modifications; however, further progress will depend on the availability of more reliable diagnostic methods with which it will be possible to evaluate the effects of different therapeutic interventions.
The epidemic of the new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has impacted worldwide with its infectious spread and mortality rate. Thousands of articles have been published to tackle this crisis and many of these have indicated that high air pollution levels may be a contributing factor to high outbreak rates of COVID-19. Atmospheric pollutants, indeed, producing oxidative stress, inflammation, immuno-unbalance, and systemic coagulation, may be a possible significant co-factor of further damage, rendering the body prone to infections by a variety of pathogens, including viruses. Spermatozoa are extremely responsive to prooxidative effects produced by environmental pollutants and may serve as a powerful alert that signals the extent that environmental pressure, in a specific area, is doing damage to humans. In order to improve our current knowledge on this topic, this review article summarizes the relevant current observations emphasizing the weight that environmental pollution has on the sensitivity of a given population to several diseases and how semen quality, may be a potential indicator of sensitivity for virus insults (including SARS-CoV-2) in high polluted areas, and help to predict the risk for harmful effects of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. In addition, this review focused on the potential routes of virus transmission that may represent a population health risk and also identified the areas of critical importance that require urgent research to assess and manage the COVID-19 outbreak.
The evaluation of exposure in association with information on the inherent toxicity of the chemical (that is, the expected response to a given level of exposure) plays a critical role to predict the probability, nature, and magnitude of the adverse health effects. The epidemiological findings, the results on cancers and other chronic diseases with a long latency are a weak tool to reduce the risk for the current and next generation. An important issue is the exposure time into health risk assessment/management, especially in highly polluted areas, where health problems increase. In this regard, the environment and health aspects must become, as a matter of urgency, an international priority, both in terms of policy and resource allocation. The use of reproductive biomarkers for early risk detection is introduced by the EcoFoodFertility research project in one of the areas with the highest environmental impact in Europe, "Land of Fires" in Southern Italy. This area, a symbol of the ecological crisis, represents a possible new methodological approach in public health. This chapter aims to explain how biomarkers of reproductive health could be exploited as early flags of environmental pressure and enhanced risk of chronic adverse effects on health. In particular, human semen seems to be a sensitive source of biomarkers, giving information on biologically active exposures, and it can be very useful for preventive health surveillance programs, especially in environmental risk areas. This approach appears very promising, above all, in young people (maximum fertile age:18-35 years), considering the possibility to reduce the chronic-degenerative diseases in future adults. In this context, many scientific findings are increasingly about the association between pollution and fertility problems and therefore, the safeguard of germ cells is a new challenge to reduce the burden of epigenetically transmitted diseases.
