Determination of Polychlorinated dibenzo dioxins/ furans (PCCD/Fs) and Dioxin Like Polychlorinated Bipheneyls(PCBs) concentrations in human adipose tissue and breast milk to investigate relation with infertility

Persistent organic pollutants are chemicals that remain intact in the environment for long periods, become widely distributed geographically, accumulate in the fatty tissue of living organisms and are toxic to humans and wildlife. Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and polychlorinated biphenyles (PCBs) are 3 of the 12 UNEP internationally recognized persistent organic pollutants and also they are most important toxic members of persistent organic pollutants. They are lipophilic unwanted by-products in a variety of industrial and thermal processes and contaminants found in a variety of environmental media, including air, soil, sediment and biota. Today they are found in all humans, with higher levels commonly found in people living in more industrialized countries and exposure to these chemicals can be associated with a wide range of adverse health effects.In Turkey, there is no previous data on chemically determined PCDDs/PCDFs and dioxin-like PCBs in human tissues and also breast milk expressed as World Health Organization (WHO) toxic equivalents (TEQs). The objective of this study was to determine the occurrence of PCDDs/Fs, and dioxin-like PCBs in the infertile men and compare with general Turkish population. For this reason we measured adipose tissue concentrations of PCDDs/Fs and dioxin-like PCBs in adipose tissue concentrations of PCDDs/Fs and dioxin-like PCBs in 23 fertile and 22 infertile men living in Ankara, Turkey. Adipose tissue samples were analyzed for PCDD/F and 12 dioxin-like PCB congeners using high resolution gas chromatography /high-resolution mass spectrometry. For the fertile and infertile groups, the World Health Organization (WHO)PCDD/F-TEQ concentrations ranged from 3.0 to 15.8 pg/g fat and from 2.8 to 17.2 pg/g fat, respectively (4.4?31.5 and 4.7?22.3 WHO-TEQs/g fat, respectively, including dioxin-like PCBs) (p[0.05). The mean concentrations of WHOPCDD/F-TEQ and WHOPCBTEQ have been calculated as 7.2 and 12.5 pg/g (on a lipid basis) for the fertile group and 7.0 and 9.4 pg/g for the infertile group, respectively. Concentrations of each of the PCDD/F and dioxin-like PCB congeners were compared in fertile and infertile groups among themselves, and no statistical significance was obtained (p[0.05), except 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzofuran (p = 0.0029) and1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9-octachlorodibenzofuran (p = 0.01).On the other hand, we also measured the levels of these contaminants in Turkish human milk, samples from 51 Turkish women living in Ankara, İstanbul, Antalya, Kahramanmaraş, and Afyon provinces provinces by high resolution gas chromatography/high resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS). The mean concentrations of WHOPCDD/F-TEQ and WHOPCB-TEQ of all samples from the five regions were 7.5 and 3.1 pg/g on a lipid basis, respectively. PCDD/F concentrations ranged between 0.78 and 29.3 pg WHO-TEQ/g fat (1.7 and 36.2 pg WHO-TEQ/g fat, respectively, including PCB). Of the five studied locations, the lowest levels of ? TEQs were found in the Afyon (6.8) and the highest in the Antalya (15.6) province. The results are discussed in terms of regional, PCDD/F and PCB levels. The contamination in Turkish human milk is comparable to that found in other countries.This study is very important since it is the first report on PCDDs/Fs and dioxin-like PCB contamination in human adipose tissue and milk from Turkey.