研究稱吸菸可能降低男性精子質量大綱

Everyone knows that a woman who smokes and plans to become pregnant should stop smoking. A new study suggests that the future father should quit, too.

人人都知道，吸菸的女性如果計劃懷孕，就應該戒菸。一項新研究表明，計劃要孩子的男性也應該戒菸。

Brazilian researchers analyzed the sperm of 20 smokers and 20 nonsmokers and found that the smokers’ sperm was damaged in ways that could reduce the chance of fertilization and might also lead to health problems in the baby.

巴西的一些研究人員分析了20位吸菸者和20位不吸菸者的精子，發現吸菸者的精子受到了損傷，而這可能降低卵子成功受精的機率，還可能爲嬰兒帶來健康問題。

The DNA in smokers’ sperm was fragmented, probably because of oxidative stress from the cadmium and nicotine in cigarette smoke. Sperm DNA fragmentation has been shown in other studies to be associated with an increased risk of genetic problems in the offspring as well as with an increased risk of childhood cancer. Mitochondria, the energy centers of cells, were also less active in the sperm of smokers.

吸菸者精子中的DNA出現了斷裂，究其原因或許是香菸煙霧中的鎘和尼古丁誘導了氧化應激。其他一些研究顯示，精子DNA斷裂會增加後代遺傳病的發病率，以及在兒童時期患上癌症的風險。吸菸者精子中的線粒體活性也較低。線粒體是細胞的能量中心。

The study, in BJU International, also found that smokers had a larger percentage of nonintact acrosomes, the part of the head of the sperm that releases enzymes that allow the sperm to penetrate the ovum’s shell. And the researchers discovered alterations in the proteins in smokers’ seminal plasma that might impair fertilization.

這份發表在《英國國際泌尿學期刊》(BJU international)上的研究報告還顯示，吸菸者精子頂體——位於精子頭部，會釋放讓精子穿透卵子外殼的酶——的完整率也更低一些。此外，研究人員發現，吸菸者精漿中的蛋白質出現了可能會影響受精的變化。

“All these effects were found in smokers,” said the senior author, Ricardo Pimenta Bertolla of the São Paulo Federal University. The message, he said, is straightforward: Smoking alters a man’s capacity to produce sperm that can successfully fertilize an egg.

“我們在吸菸者身上發現了所有這些後果，” 研究報告的資深作者、聖保羅聯邦大學(São Paulo Federal University)的裏卡多·皮門塔·貝爾托拉(Ricardo Pimenta Bertolla) 表示。他說，很明顯：吸菸會損害男性排出那些能讓卵子成功受精的精子的能力。