(Philadelphia, PA) Over the last ten years, US researchers have observed a marked increase in some male reproductive disorders, including undescended testicles, increased instances of testicular cancer, and decreased sperm count. In the last 20 years the rates for testicular cancer have grown almost five-fold in Denmark, yet neighboring Finland has not experienced such a dramatic increase. In an effort to explain this phenomenon, scientists have hypothesized that these human male reproductive deficits may have a common origin: a disturbance in the level of androgen and other critical hormones during fetal development. The results from tests with laboratory animals may help scientists better understand the effect of fetal exposure to certain chemicals has on male reproduction abilities later in life.

Paul M.D. Foster, Ph.D., of the National Institutes of Environmental Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC, and his colleagues have recently co-authored a series of journal articles examining how fetal exposure to two common environmental agents affects the reproductive capabilities of some laboratory animals. Dr. Foster will be discussing their research during a presentation entitled, "Disruption of Male Reproductive Development by Antiandrogens" during the 55th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC), being held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA, July 20-24, 2003. More than 16,000 attendees are expected.

Background

Dr. Foster and his colleagues have recently published the results of animal studies conducted to explore how two environmental agents, di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) and linuron (L), can produce a range of reproductive effects in rats, similar to the effects found in humans. Both agents have been related to the incidence of male birth defects at birth and adverse development of male reproduction later in life in rats. The fact that they do so, albeit by differing mechanism
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Contact: Donna Krupa
djkrupa1@aol.com
703-527-7357
American Association for Clinical Chemistry
21-Jul-2003

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