The higher risk for sperm DNA damage in infertile men

Objectives: Supplementary assays are needed for determination of relationships between sperm biomarkers and fertility potential. Therefore, our research was designed to determine the extent of sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) and establish a discriminating threshold of SDF for fertility potential. Material and methods: Semen characteristics were evaluated according to World Health Organization recommendations, and SDF was assessed by sperm chromatin dispersion test on ejaculated spermatozoa from infertile and healthy normozoospermic men. Results: A higher proportion of SDF was noted in infertile men (median 23.00%) than normozoospermic (median 14.00%). Significantly less subjects (17.03%) with low SDF level (≤ 15%) and more (35.17%) with high SDF level ( > 30%) were found for the infertile group vs the normooospermic (57.90% and 5.26%, respectively). Infertile group had significantly lower odds ratio (OR) for having a low SDF level (OR: 0.1493) and higher OR for having a high SDF level (OR: 9.7627). Receiver operating characteristic analysis [area under curve (AUC) = 0.785] revealed that 20% SDF is predictive value for discriminating between infertile and normozoospermic subjects. SDF was negatively correlated with the sperm number, morphology, progressive motility and vitality but positively with the teratozoospermia index. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates: (1) a significant difference in the extent of SDF and in the risk for having damaged sperm DNA between infertile and normozoospermic men, (2) > 20% SDF has negative predictive value for fertility potential, (3) coexistence of abnormal standard sperm parameters with sperm chromatin damages. Therefore, SDF should be considered as a highly valuable indicator of male fertility potential

The impact of sedentary work on sperm nuclear DNA integrity

Introduction. Contemporary professional jobs that often enforce a sedentary lifestyle and are frequently associated with testicular overheat, deserve special attention with respect to male fertility potential. Interestingly, the harmful effect of testicular heat stress on sperm characteristics including nuclear DNA integrity was well characterized; however, the influence of sedentary work on sperm chromatin has not yet been documented. Therefore, our research was designed to examine the potential effects of sedentary work not only on conventional semen features but also on sperm nuclear DNA status.Materials and methods. The study was carried out on ejaculated sperm cells obtained from men who spent ≥ 50% of their time at work (≥ 17.5 h per week) in a sedentary position (n = 152) and from men who spent < 50% of their time at work in a sedentary position (n = 102). Standard semen characteristics were assessed according to the WHO 2010 recommendations, while sperm nuclear DNA fragmentation (SDF) was evaluated using the Halosperm test.Results. There were no significant differences in the standard semen parameters between the study groups. The groups differed only in SDF parameter. The men who spent at least 50% of their work time in a sedentary position had a higher proportion of SDF than the men who spent < 50% of their time at work in a sedentary position (median value 21.00% vs. 16.50%, respectively). The incidence of low SDF levels (related to 0–15% sperm cells with abnormal DNA dispersion) was significantly lower (27.63% vs. 45.10%), the percentage of men with high SDF levels (related to > 30%) was significantly higher (30.92% vs. 16.67%) in group of men who spent at least 50% of their work time in a sedentary positon. Furthermore, these men were more than twice as likely to have not a low SDF level (OR: 0.4648) and had more than twice the risk of having a high SDF level (OR: 2.2381) than the men in less sedentary occupations.Conclusions. Despite lack of association between sedentary work and conventional semen characteristics our study revealed detrimental effect of seated work on sperm nuclear DNA integrity. A sedentary job doubled the risk of high levels of sperm DNA damage. The pathomechanism could be related to testicular heat stress resulting in sperm chromatin remodelling failure during spermiogenesis. Therefore, it seems reasonable to simultaneously carry out routine seminological analyses and tests assessing sperm chromatin status while diagnosing male infertility

Dreams of Immortality. Resurrection and its reinterpretations in selected film examples

Autorka pracy skupia się na funkcjonowaniu motywu zmartwychwstania oraz jego reinterpretacji w kulturze popularnej, przede wszystkim w subiektywnie wybranych przykładach filmowych obrazujących ludzkie marzenia o nieśmiertelności. W pierwszej części pracy autorka bada genezę motywu zmartwychwstania, analizując jego religijne przedstawienia. Szczególną uwagę poświęca chrześcijańskiej wizji zmartwychwstania, z racji popularności i zasięgu występowania dogmatów tego wyznania. Kolejny rozdział od krótkiego szkicu dotyczącego kina pasyjnego wychodzi do głębszej analizy wybranych przykładów filmowego, pozakanonicznego wykorzystania motywu zmartwychwstania: "Słowa" (1955) Carla Theodora Dreyera, "Cichego światła" (2007) Carlosa Reygadasa oraz "Dzikiego pola" (2008) Michaiła Kałatoziszwilego. W trzeciej części pracy autorka skupia się na postaci wampira jako egzemplifikacji złożonych, kulturowych przemian stosunku do śmierci i powrotu do życia. Rozdział czwarty poświęcony jest jednej z najbardziej zmitologizowanych postaci kinowych „żywych trupów” – zombie. Ostatnia część pracy dotyczy szerokiego spektrum różnych możliwości ukazania powrotu zza grobu w kinie. Całość zamyka wykorzystana przy pisaniu bibliografia oraz filmografia pojawiających się w tekście tytułów filmów.The author focuses on how resurrection and its reinterpretations function in popular culture, especially in subjectively selected film examples that picture the human dreams of immortality. In thesis’ first part the author researchers the resurrection motive, analyzing its religious presentations. Special attention is paid to the Christian vision of resurrection, considering its popularity and range of the confession’s dogmas. Next chapter is introduced with a short depiction of the cinema focused on the Passion of the Christ, only to develope into a deeper analysis of the selected film examples that present resurrection in a non-canonical way. These include Carl Theodor Dreyer's "The Word" (1955), Carlos Reygadas' "Silent Light" (2007) and Mikheil Kalatozishvili's "The Wild Field" (2008). In the third part the author concentrates on the vampire figure as an exemplification of complex cultural changes in the attitude towards death and return to life. The fourth chapter is dedicated to one of the most mythologized film figures of the living dead – a zombie. The last part presents the wide spectrum of different possibilities of depicting the return form the grave. The thesis closes with a bibliography used while writing the text and a filmography of titles that appear throughout it

Język płci – prawda czy mit? Analiza języka polskiego używanego przez mężczyzn i kobiety

Praca skupia się na temacie obecności języka płci we współczesnej polszczyźnie używanej zarówno przez mężczyzn, jak i kobiety. Pierwsze dwa rozdziały opisują podejścia teoretyczne do tematu, jak również wpływ kultury i komunikacji na języki. Rozdział 1 dotyczy relacji pomiędzy kulturą, komunikacją i językiem, a także takich aspektów jak wymiary kultury, różne aspekty płci w kulturze oraz prawo relatywizmu językowego. Rozdział 2 odnosi się do języka i płci. W tej części rozważane są takie aspekty jak różnice pomiędzy płcią biologiczną a płcią kulturową, historia badań języka płci, zmiany jakie zaszły w języku dzięki próbom ujednolicenia języka płci oraz elementy języka płci w polszczyźnie. Ostatni rozdział dotyczy analizy danych, w tym przedstawienia uczestników badania oraz analizę korpusu według niektórych aspektów języka płci wymienionych przez Robin Lakoff i Kwirynę Hanke. Głównym celem pracy jest odpowiedzenie na następujące pytania: Czy aspekty języka płci wymieniane przez Lakoff mogą być również przypisane współczesnemu językowi polskiemu? Czy założenia przedstawiane przez Handke mogą być również przypisane językowi używanemu przez mężczyzn? Czy współczesne Polki również używają aspektów języka płci wspomnianych przez Handke? Jednak najważniejszym pytaniem jest, czy nadal można mówić o języku płci we współczesnej polszczyźnie, czy różnice w sposobie wypowiadania się płci są nadal widoczne?The present work focuses on gendered language of contemporary Polish used by its male and female speakers. The first two chapters show theoretical background on the subject of gendered speech as well as the influence of culture and communication on language. Chapter 1 concentrates on the relation of culture, language and communication as well as on such aspects as the dimensions of culture, gender in culture and the theory of language relativity. Chapter 2 deals with language and gender. In this part such aspects as the difference between the terms sex and gender as well as the history of gendered language studies are shown. It also presents the changes that occurred in English in terms of gendered speech as well as the Polish gendered language. The final chapter focuses on all aspects of data analysis from the presentation of participants through the corpus analysis according to some features of gendered speech mentioned by Robin Lakoff and Kwiryna Handke. The main aim of the work is to answer the following questions: Can the claims made by Lakoff be attributed to contemporary Polish speakers? Can the claims made by Handke be also attributed to the male speakers of Polish? Do contemporary Polish women use the same features of language as Handke described in her study? And the most important question is whether we can still talk about Polish gendered language or if the differences of how the sexes speak still exist

The analysis of selected biochemical parameters in the rats' adipose tissue depending on types of diet

Adipose tissue is still one of the least known tissues. However, it has drawn much more attention in recent years due to a growing problem of obesity and its connection with the development of metabolic disorders and cardiovascular diseases.In this thesis the influence of diet modifications on the selected biochemical parameters of the mitochondrial and postmitochondrial fractions of adipocytes was investigated. These were: total antioxidant capacity FRAP, activity of catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) as well as concentrations of glucose and glutathione (GSH). Additionally, changes in rats' weight were registered. Diet modifications comprised of the addition of fructose, fat, lyophilisate of Cornus officinalis’ fruits or vanadic compounds marked as B, V and Bm. The activity of CAT and FRAP was found to be higher in homogenate than in mitochondria. The high-fructose, high-fat and high-fat-with-Cornus diets led to the much higher growth in body mass of rats than the diets with the B, V and Bm vanadic compounds. Moreover, feeding rats the high-fat and high-fructose diets with Cornus sp. resulted in a significantly elevated glucose concentration in postmitochondrial fraction, when compared to the high-fat diet containing the V vanadic compound. In addition, changes in total antioxidant capacity FRAP was noted. Nevertheless, no statistically significant difference between the diets was observed in the activity of mitochondrial and postmitochondrial catalases and superoxide dismutase (SOD) as well as in a glutathione concentration in the postmitochondrial fraction.Furthermore, pilot measurements of fatty acids' profile in adipose tissue of rats were conducted. Observed changes might indicate a significant influence of diet modifications on the triglyceride content (TG) of adipose tissue and motivate for further research in this field.Tkana tłuszczowa jest wciąż słabo poznaną tkanką. W ostatnich latach, ze względu na narastający problem otyłości i jej związek z rozwojem chorób metabolicznych i układu krążenia, zainteresowanie tą tkanką znacznie wzrosło. W pracy zajęto się określeniem wpływu modyfikacji diety na wybrane parametry biochemiczne frakcji mitochondrialnej i postmitochondrialnej adipocytów: całkowitą zdolność antyoksydacyjną FRAP, aktywność katalazy (CAT) i dysmutazy ponadtlenkowej (SOD), stężenie glukozy i glutationu (GSH) oraz na zmianę masy ciała szczurów. Modyfikacje diety polegały na dodatku fruktozy, tłuszczu, liofilizatu z owoców derenia lub związków wanadu oznaczonych jako B, V i Bm. Z przeprowadzonych badań wynika, że aktywność CAT i FRAP jest wyższa w homogenacie niż w mitochondriach. Diety fruktozowa, tłuszczowa i tłuszczowa z dodatkiem derenia powodują dużo większy wzrost masy ciała szczurów niż diety z dodatkiem związków wanadu B, V i Bm. Dieta tłuszczowa z dodatkiem derenia oraz dieta fruktozowo – dereniowa są przyczyną istotnego wzrostu stężenia glukozy we frakcji postmitochondrialnej w porównaniu z dietą tłuszczową ze związkiem wanadu V. Odnotowano również zmiany w całkowitej zdolności antyoksydacyjnej FRAP. W aktywności katalazy mitochondrialnej, katalazy postmitochondrialnej i dysmutazy ponadtlenkowej oraz w stężeniu glutationu we frakcji postmitochondrialnej nie zaobserwowano żadnych statystycznie istotnych różnic pomiędzy dietami.Dokonano również pilotażowych pomiarów profilu kwasów tłuszczowych w tkance tłuszczowej szczurów. Zaobserwowane tutaj zmiany mogą wskazywać na istotny wpływ modyfikacji dietetycznych na skład TG tkanki tłuszczowej i skłaniać do podjęcia dalszych badań w tym kierunku

Effects of Dietary Intervention and Education on Selected Biochemical Parameters and Nutritional Habits of Young Soccer Players

In adolescence, the body requires sufficient amounts of adequate nutrients. This is especially important in the case of young athletes, for whom a nutrition plan should be as significant as a proper training plan. The aim of the study was a 17-week follow-up of the effects of individual and group nutrition intervention on changes in eating habits and selected biochemical parameters. 46 young soccer players aged 12–17 from the Soccer Academy in Northeastern Poland completed the study. One group received only individual recommendations, while the other additionally received group nutrition education. As a result of the dietary education, teenagers from the latter group consumed less saccharose (44 g vs. 39.2 g) in favor of digestible carbohydrates (266 g vs. 273 g) and dietary fiber (19.7 g vs. 22.2 g), further emphasizing the health-promoting profile of diets. The amount of fluid consumed (33% vs. 48% above 2 L of water a day) and the habits of the peri-workout hydration routine were also improved. Many of the participants (41%) reported faster regeneration while 26% experienced an overall better well-being. The short-term intervention produced positive results, but nevertheless it is the implementation of long-term dietary improvement schemes involving parents and coaches that should be the direction of future approaches

Health Safety Assessment of Ready-to-Eat Products Consumed by Children Aged 0.5–3 Years on the Polish Market

Toxic elements have a negative impact on health, especially among infants and young children. Even low levels of exposure can impair the normal growth and development of children. In young children, all organs and metabolic processes are insufficiently developed, making them particularly vulnerable to the effects of toxic elements. The aim of this study is to estimate the concentration of toxic elements in products consumed by infants and young children. The health risk of young children due to consumption of ready-made products potentially contaminated with As (arsenic), Cd (cadmium), Hg (mercury), and Pb (lead) was also assessed. A total of 397 samples (dinners, porridges, mousses, snacks “for the handle”, baby drinks, dairy) were analyzed for the content of toxic elements. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to assess As, Cd, and Pb concentration. The determination of Hg was performed by atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). In order to estimate children’s exposure to toxic elements, the content of indicators was also assessed: estimated daily intake (EDI), estimated weekly intake (EWI), provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI), provisional tolerable monthly intake (PTMI), the benchmark dose lower confidence limit (BMDL), target hazard quotient (THQ), hazard index (HI), and cancer risk (CR). The average content of As, Cd, Hg, and Pb for all ready-made products for children is: 1.411 ± 0.248 µg/kg, 2.077 ± 0.154 µg/kg, 3.161 ± 0.159 µg/kg, and 9.265 ± 0.443 µg/kg, respectively. The highest content As was found in wafer/crisps (84.71 µg/kg); in the case of Cd, dinners with fish (20.15 µg/kg); for Hg, dinners with poultry (37.25 µg/kg); and for Pb, fruit mousse (138.99 µg/kg). The results showed that 4.53% of the samples attempted to exceed Pb, and 1.5% exceeded levels of Hg. The highest value of THQ was made in the case of drinks, for Cd and Pb in mousses for children, and Hg for dairy products. The THQ, BMDL, and PTWI ratios were not exceeded. The analyzed ready-to-eat products for children aged 0.5–3 years may contain toxic elements, but most of them appear to be harmless to health

Content of Toxic Elements in 12 Groups of Rice Products Available on Polish Market: Human Health Risk Assessment

Background: Rice is one of the most commonly consumed grains. It could be a good source of nutrients in a diet, but its consumption could also contribute to exposure to toxic elements. All rice products available on the Polish market are imported, which may pose a particular concern as to the safety of their consumption. The aim of our study was to estimate the content of As, Cd, Pb, and Hg in rice products and to assess the health risk indicators related to exposure to toxic elements consumed with rice products among the adult population in Poland. Methods: A total of 99 samples from 12 groups of rice products (basmati, black, brown, parboiled, red, wild, white rice and expanded rice, rice flakes, flour, pasta, and waffles) available in the Polish market were obtained. The content of Hg was determined using the atomic absorption spectrometry method (AAS). To measure As, Cd, and Pb, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used. The health risk was assessed by calculating several indicators. Results: The average As, Cd, Pb, and Hg contents in all studied products were 123.5 ± 77.1 μg/kg, 25.7 ± 26.5 μg/kg, 37.5 ± 29.3 μg/kg, and 2.8 ± 2.6 μg/kg, respectively. Exceedance of the limit established by the Polish National Food Safety Standard was observed in one sample as regards the As content and exceedance of the European Commission standard in two samples for Hg. The samples of foods imported from European markets (n = 27) had statistically higher As content (p < 0.05) than those imported from Asian countries (n = 53). The values of health risk indicators did not show an increased risk for the Polish adult population. However, the daily intake of 55 g of rice corresponds to the benchmark dose lower confidence limit (BMDL) for Pb. Conclusion: The studied rice products could be regarded as safe for consumption by the Polish population as far as the content of As, Cd, Pb, and Hg is concerned

Comparative Analysis of Antioxidant Properties of Honey from Poland, Italy, and Spain Based on the Declarations of Producers and Their Results of Melissopalinological Analysis

Natural bee honeys are commonly used by patients for nutritional, preventive, and curative purposes. Honey varieties produced in other countries, including Italy and Spain, are gaining popularity. The aim of the study was to evaluate selected antioxidant properties of honey, taking into account the declared and actual variety. The research material consisted of 105 honey samples, including honeys from Poland (n = 50), from Spain (n = 35), and from Italy (n = 20). The variety was determined by the melissopalinological method, and in the case of honeydew honeys, the electrical conductivity was measured. Total phenolic content (TPC), color intensity, color in Pfund scale, DPPH, and FRAP were assessed. Polish buckwheat honeys, with confirmed botanical origin, are characterized by the highest median of the TPC (213.05 mg GAE/100 g), the highest color intensity (1.138 mAU), and the highest value in the FRAP test (0.394 µM Fe2+/mL). In conclusion, proper labeling of bee honeys is necessary so as not to mislead consumers, and buckwheat honeys from Poland can be recommended to patients for prophylactic purposes in order to provide antioxidants in the diet