Study finds microplastics in every single human and canine testicle: 'The plastic makes a difference'



A peer-reviewed study published last week in the official journal of the Society of Toxicology indicated that human and canine testicles are teeming with microplastics. This may help account for the precipitous global decline in male fertility.

Awash in microplastics

Nature Medicine noted in an editorial last month that the "world is awash" with over 6 billion tons of plastic.

'MNPs are found everywhere on the planet, including the oceans, air, and food supply.'

Roughly 353 million tons of plastic waste were produced in 2019 alone. Nature Medicine indicated that's particularly bad news since plastics contain over 10,000 chemicals, including endocrine disruptors and cancer-causing carcinogens, and can easily steal into the human body.

Plastics find their way into the human body in the form of tiny particles called microplastics (less than 5 mm in diameter) and nanoplastics (less than 1 μm in diameter). Microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) can arise from a variety of sources, including by design, as in the case of microbeads used in cosmetic and personal care products, or inadvertently, as the result of degradation of larger plastic products, such as through the laundering of synthetic clothes or abrasion of tires. MNPs are found everywhere on the planet, including the oceans, air and food supply.

Blaze News previously detailed the findings of an Australian June 2023 study that suggested humans might be inhaling roughly 16.2 bits of plastic every hour — enough to make a credit card per week. These credit cards can prove costly.

According to the scientific journal, microplastics have been shown in rodent studies to adversely impact various organs, including the intestine, lungs, and liver along with the reproductive and nervous systems.

In terms of their impact on human beings — where they have been found polluting various organs along with placenta and breast milk — researchers have identified links between microplastics and various health conditions, including cardiovascular disease and inflammatory bowel disease.

It appears scientists may have come across yet another troubling link.

Devaluing the family jewels

Blaze News previously reported that sperm counts have been trending downward in men on every continent since at least 1973.

A 2022 peer-reviewed study published in the journal Human Reproduction Update confirmed a trend detailed by the same researchers years earlier in a groundbreaking meta-analysis. The researchers indicated that "this world-wide decline is continuing in the 21st century at an accelerated pace."

The study, led by Dr. Hagai Levine of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Dr. Shanna Swan of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, revealed that the trend was "driven by a 50%-60% decline among men" in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

After combining the findings from over 250 other studies and increasing their sample size — so as to include men not already worried about their fertility — the researchers determined that between 1973 and 2018, sperm counts "declined appreciably," not just in Western men but in 53 countries across the world.

The sperm count decline has "become steeper since 2000," dropping by 1.4% per year and by 62.3% overall.

Declining sperm counts have been attributed to various factors, including chlormequat chloride, an agricultural chemical found in oat-based foods; mobile phone radiation exposure; and certain vaccines.

Microplastics are evidently another contender.

Plastic baggage

Researchers at the University of New Mexico recently studied 47 canine and 23 human testes. Every single testicle contained microplastics, polyethylene — used to make plastic bags and bottles — being the most prevalent.

'When I first received the results for dogs I was surprised. I was even more surprised when I received the results for humans.'

According to the University of New Mexico, the researchers chemically treated the testicle samples to dissolve the fat and proteins. They then spun each sample in an "ultracentrifuge, leaving a nugget of plastic at the bottom of a tube. Then, heated the plastic pellet in a metal cup to 600 degrees Celsius. They used a mass spectrometer to analyze gas emissions as different types of plastic burned at specific temperatures."

They found that the average concentration of microplastics in testicular tissue were 122.63 micrograms per gram in dogs and 328.44 micrograms per gram in humans.

"At the beginning, I doubted whether microplastics could penetrate the reproductive system," said Dr. Xiaozhong Yu, head of the research team. "When I first received the results for dogs I was surprised. I was even more surprised when I received the results for humans."

Matthew Campen, one of the authors of the study, told NPR the tiny particles are "shard-like, stabby bits."

The human testicles, which the Guardian reported were taken from the corpses of men between the ages of 16 and 88, had been chemically preserved such that their sperm count could not be measured. Researchers were, however, able to assess whether higher plastic contamination in the dog's testes corresponded with lower sperm counts.

Researcers found that high levels of PVC — the second-most prevalent polymer in dogs — correlated with a lower sperm count.

"The plastic makes a difference — what type of plastic might be correlated with potential function," said Yu. "PVC can release a lot of chemicals that interfere with spermatogenesis, and it contains chemicals that cause endocrine disruption."

The research team examined canine testicles in particular because "compared to rats and other animals, dogs are cloer to humans," said Yu. "We believe dogs and humans share common environmental factors that contribute to their decline.

"We don't want to scare people," continued Yu. "We want to scientifically provide the data and make people aware there are a lot of microplastics. We can make our own choices to better avoid exposures, change our lifestyle and change our behavior."

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Scientists create synthetic human embryos, eliminating need for sperm and eggs, thereby raising major ethical concerns



Scientists at the University of Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology appear to have successfully accomplished what abortionists and libertines have only managed in a piecemeal fashion over recent decades: They have severed reproduction from fertilization.

Researchers have produced synthetic human embryos using stem cells, bypassing the need for sperm or eggs altogether, reported the Guardian.

According to Quanta Magazine, Cambridge professor Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz and Jacob Hanna at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, have worked in recent years to craft mouse embryo models from stem cells, then grow them in nutrient-filled bottles, which served as "a kind of crude artificial uterus."
Their monster creations soon developed the basis of what would "become a spinal column, along with the bulbous blob of the nascent head and even a primitive beating heart."

While they were meddling with mice, a multi-institutional team of researchers, led by Chinese reproductive engineer Zhen Lu at the State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience in Shanghai, reportedly generated synthetic embryos using monkey embryonic stem cells, then successfully initiated pregnancies in monkeys via a process resembling in vitro fertilization.

Rather than abandon rodents to retread Lu's monkey business, Żernicka-Goetz and Hanna endeavored to tinker with the world's top primate.

Żernicka-Goetz detailed her latest work in a plenary address Wednesday before the International Society for Stem Cell Research in Boston, noting, "We can create human embryo-like models by the reprogramming of [embryonic stem] cells."

Żernicka-Goetz described cultivating human embryos beyond the equivalent of 14 days of development for a natural embryo, when the synthetic embryo "reached the beginning of a developmental milestone known as gastrulation, when the embryo transforms from being a continuous sheet of cells to forming distinct cell lines and setting up the basic axes of the body. At this stage, the embryo does not yet have a beating heart, gut or beginnings of a brain, but the model showed the presence of primordial cells that are the precursor cells of egg and sperm," noted the Guardian.

Żernicka-Goetz called the dehumanized process and its monstrous result "beautiful," adding, "Our human model is the first three-lineage human embryo model that specifies amnion and germ cells, precursor cells of egg and sperm."

Janet Rossant, a developmental biologist and International Society for Stem Cell Research steering committee member, told the MIT Technology Review that such synthetic embryos, if equipped with all the right cell types, could possibly survive to become viable humans.

Żernicka-Goetz stressed to CNN that "they are not human embryos. ... They are embryo models, but they are very exciting because they are very looking similar to human embryos and very important path towards discovery of why so many pregnancies fail, as the majority of the pregnancies fail around the time of the development at which we build these embryo-like structures."

Żernicka-Goetz's previous synthetic mouse embryos were virtually indistinguishable from the real thing after eight days, according to Quanta magazine.

The difference between an embryo model and the real thing, according to Christine Mummery, developmental biologist in the anatomy and embryology department at Leiden University Medical Center, is that they have "not been derived by fertilization."

While it is illegal to implant these embryos in a woman's womb, the novelty of the stem cell-derived embryos presently affords scientists leeway they would not otherwise have if dealing with embryos resultant of sperm-and-egg fertilization.

"Unlike human embryos arising from in vitro fertilization (IVF), where there is an established legal framework, there are currently no clear regulations governing stem cell derived models of human embryos. There is an urgent need for regulations to provide a framework for the creation and use of stem cell derived models of human embryos," said James Briscoe, associate research director at the Francis Crick Institute.

Robin Lovell-Badge, the head of stem cell biology and developmental genetics at the Francis Crick Institute, told the Guardian, "If the whole intention is that these models are very much like normal embryos, then in a way they should be treated the same. ... Currently in legislation they’re not. People are worried about this."

IVF-sourced embryos are presently subject to the ethics-informed "14-day rule."

Professor Martin Pera with the Jackson Laboratory noted in the journal Development that the 14-day rule, whereby the in vitro culture of the human embryo is not allowed to proceed beyond day 14 of embryonic development in various jurisdictions, was the result of bioethical discussions that took place in the early days of the IVF field in the 1970s, especially after the first successful birth of a British child conceived by IVF.

While the prevailing wisdom appeared to be that it was ethically questionable to conduct experiments on human beings during their embryonic stage of development, according to Pera, the four key arguments advanced in support of a 14-day limit on embryo culture were as follows:

  • "14 days is the last stage in development at which twinning can occur and therefore represents the point of individuation";
  • "not even the founding cells of the nervous system have been specified prior to this stage";
  • "there is substantial embryo loss from the time of fertilisation up to this point"; and
  • "until the process of implantation is complete, the embryo has no potential for further development."

While regulatory bodies at American universities and other research institutions in the U.S. allegedly adhere to the "14-day rule," the International Society for Stem Cell Research issued a recommendation in its 2021 guidance that the possibility of increasing the permitted culture time be considered by "national academies of science, academic societies, funders, and regulators."

NPR reported that the creation of so-called embryiods, living entities made from human stem cells that are increasingly complex and comparable to human embryos, has "added pressure to extend the rule so scientists could compare these new entities with naturally conceived embryos."

Dr. Ildem Akerman, from the University of Birmingham, told the BBC, "These findings suggest that we would soon develop the technology to grow these cells beyond the 14-day limit, with potentially more insights to gain into human development. ... Nevertheless, the ability to do something does not justify doing it."

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Ivy league professor says it's 'bad science' to define human sex as a binary based on sperm and ova production



Princeton University professor Agustín Fuentes wrote an opinion piece for Scientific American contending that it is "bad science" to suggest that human sex is a binary biological concept based on whether an indiviual produces male of female gametes.

"This is bad science. The production of gametes does not sufficiently describe sex biology in animals, nor is it the definition of a woman or a man," Fuentes wrote. "Given what we know about biology across animals and in humans, efforts to represent human sex as binary based solely on what gametes one produces are not about biology but are about trying to restrict who counts as a full human in society."

Fuentes claimed that inaccurate representations of biology are being wielded to target women and transgender people.

"So when someone states that 'An organism’s sex is defined by the type of gamete (sperm or ova) it has the function of producing' and argues that legal and social policy should be 'rooted in properties of bodies,' they are not really talking about gametes and sex biology. They are arguing for a specific political, and discriminatory, definition of what is 'natural' and 'right' for humans based on a false representation of biology," he wrote.

"Over the past few centuries this process of misrepresentation of biology was, and still is, used to deny women rights and to justify legal and societal misogyny and inequity, to justify slavery, racialization, racism and to enforce multiple forms of discrimination and bias. Today dishonest ascriptions of what biology is are being deployed to restrict women’s bodily autonomy, target LGBTQIA+ individuals broadly and, most recently, attack the rights of transexual and transgender people," he claimed.

Fuentes, who is an anthropologist, is the author of the book, "Race, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You" — according to a book description, he characterizes the idea that men and women have different "behavior, desires, and wiring," as a myth.

"The bottom line is that while animal gametes can be described as binary (of two distinct kinds), the physiological systems, behaviors and individuals that produce them are not," he wrote in the opinion piece. "For humans, sex is dynamic, biological, cultural and enmeshed in feedback cycles with our environments, ecologies and multiple physiological and social processes," he claimed.

Humility—Can it Exist in Science? www.youtube.com

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Genetic intervention warping sperm could lead to contraception for men, researchers say



Washington State University researchers have discovered a gene that could lead to a reversible, non-hormonal contraceptive for men that works, in part, by warping the shape of sperm.

"You don’t want to wipe out the ability to ever make sperm — just stop the sperm that are being made from being made correctly," said researcher Jon Oatley, a professor at WSU's School of Molecular Biosciences.

"Then, in theory, you could remove the drug and the sperm would start being built normally again," he added.

When disabled, researchers say expression of a gene called Arrdc5 created infertility in mice by impacting the rodents' sperm count, movement, and shape. They published their findings Monday in the open-access, multidisciplinary journal Nature Communications.

The same gene present in mice is also present in humans. Crucially, the Arrdc5 gene is specific to testicular tissue, WSU's researchers report.

Lack of the gene causes oligoasthenoteratospermia, the most common diagnosis for male infertility in humans. Men with the condition have an overall decrease in sperm production, lowed sperm mobility, and a "distorted" sperm shape that prevents fusion with a woman's egg.

Oatley and Mariana Giassetti, the study's first author, have filed a provisional patent for developing a male contraceptive drug for humans that would work by disrupting a protein encoded by the gene.

The researchers say this disruption would not require interfering with testosterone, which could impact bone mass, muscle strength, and red blood cell production.

Other uses for a yet-to-be-developed drug based on these concepts involve animals, since the gene is found across mammalian species. It could, for example, potentially be used in lieu of castrating livestock or as a means for limiting overpopulation of wildlife species.

"Developing a way to curb population growth and stop unwanted pregnancies is really important for the future of the human race," Oatley said.

"Right now, we don’t really have anything on the male side for contraception other than surgery and only a small percentage of men choose vasectomies. If we can develop this discovery into a solution for contraception, it could have far-ranging impacts."

WSU's study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Health's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

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Bombshell study: Sperm counts have fallen by over 62%, suggesting an accelerated global reproductive crisis



Population alarmists and anti-human environmentalists have long complained that there are too many humans. Although there are now over 8 billion people on the planet, the crisis humanity now faces is not one of overcrowding but of growing challenges to fecundity — the ability to be fruitful and multiply.

A new peer-reviewed study published this week in the journal "Human Reproduction Update" confirmed an alarming trend detailed by the same researchers in a groundbreaking 2017 meta-analysis: Sperm counts have been trending downward in men on every continent since 1973.

The researchers indicated that "this world-wide decline is continuing in the 21st century at an accelerated pace."

What does the study say?

The study was led by Dr. Hagai Levine of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Dr. Shanna Swan of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

They found in a previous study that between 1973 and 2011, sperm counts had declined "significantly."

This trend was "driven by a 50-60% decline among men" in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Levine's team wrote at the time that "research on the causes of this continuing decline is urgently needed."

At the time of their original study, the researchers noted that "there were too few studies with data from South/Central America–Asia–Africa (SAA) to reliably estimate trends among men from these continents."

To ascertain whether this was indeed a global phenomenon, the researchers recently took advantage of another decade's worth of data, combining the findings from over 250 previous studies.

After analyzing additional studies and increasing their sample size (not including men already worried about their fertility), the researchers found that between 1973 and 2018, sperm counts "declined appreciably," not just in Western men, but in 53 countries across the world.

The sperm count decline has "become steeper since 2000," dropping by 1.4% per year and by 62.3% overall.

Factors and implications

The researchers stated that this is "now recognized as a significant public health concern," citing a group of leading clinicians and scientists who underscored both the "importance of male reproductive health for the survival of the human (and other) species" and that "decreased male fertility [is] a major public health problem."

Levine told the Times of Israel, "The trend of decline is both very real and appears to be accelerating."

If sperm concentration drops under 40 million per milliliter, then fertility begins to decline. Levine said that will occur within the next ten years. Additionally, Levine indicated that while current estimates have men, on average, posting counts above this figure, the number of men whose fertility is compromised has greatly increased.

"Our findings serve as a canary in a coal mine. We have a serious problem on our hands that, if not mitigated, could threaten humankind’s survival. We urgently call for global action to promote healthier environments for all species and reduce exposures and behaviors that threaten our reproductive health," Levine told the Times of Israel.

The Guardian reported that multiple factors can be at fault, such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals, smoking, drinking, obesity and poor diets.

The electronics men shove in their pockets may also be a contributing factor, even though the trend predates the cell phone's mass introduction by decades.

A 2014 study published in the "Central European Journal of Urology" revealed that a "correlation exists between mobile phone radiation exposure, DNA-fragmentation level and decreased sperm mobility."

According to a peer-reviewed 2022 Chinese study published in the international scientific journal "Reproduction, Fertility and Development," the "daily duration of mobile phone use may negatively affect sperm motility and impair male fertility."

In June, a study published in "Andrology" revealed that it wasn't just cell phones affecting semen parameters. Researchers found "a selective temporary decline of sperm concentration and total motile count 3 months" after men were given the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine.

Dr. Ranjith Ramasamy, director of male reproductive medicine at the University of Miami Health System, told Newsweek that the numbers were "statistically significant" and suggested that "larger studies are needed to definitively answer the question" of how profound an impact COVID-19 vaccines have on male fertility.

Dr. Richard Sharpe, a male reproductive health expert at the University of Edinburgh, told the Guardian, "These issues are not just a problem for couples trying to have kids. They are also a huge problem for society in the next 50-odd years as less and less young people will be around to work and support the increasing bulge of elderly folk."

While "links between sperm count and infertility are well-recognized," the drop is a signal of other health problems.

Dr. Swan noted that the "troubling declines in men’s sperm concentration and total sperm counts at over 1% each year as reported in our paper are consistent with adverse trends in other men’s health outcomes."

The study indicated that "the decline in sperm count is paralleled by declines in testosterone and increases in testicular cancer and male genital anomalies."

According to Swan, it's not just men who are affected. This decline corresponds also impacts female reproductive health.

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