Air Pollution Inflames Brain, Lowering Sperm Counts: Mouse Study

The buildings of downtown Los Angeles are partially obscured in the late afternoon, as seen from Pasadena, Calif., on Nov. 5, 2019. Mario Tama/Getty Images

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.