Reproductive Toxicology

Chapters.- 1) Advances in Improving Human Risk Estimation.- Trends in male reproductive health. Environmental aspects.- Organochlorine compounds and xenoestrogens in human endometrium.- Assays to measure estrogen and androgen agonists and antagonists.- Development of a marker of estrogenic exposure in breast cancer patients.- 2) New Approaches for In Vitro Analysis of Germ Cells Exposure to Toxicological Agents.- In vitro culture systems for germ cells from mouse embryo: primordial germ cells and oocytes.- Cell culture systems for the analysis of the male germinal differentiation.- In vitro survival of human neoplastic germ cells.- Effects of rapamycin and fk 506 on rat sertoli cells in vitro.- Flow cytometry as a tool for the evaluation of testicular toxicity.- DNA damage in human and mouse spermatozoa after in vitro-irradiation assessed by the comet assay.- In vitro models for the investigation of reproductive toxicology in the testis.- Effect of metal compounds on boar sperm motility in vitro.- In vitro analysis of xenoestrogens by enzyme linked receptor assays (ELRA).- 3) Molecular and Developmental Approaches for Assessing Reproductive Toxicity:.- Current and future contributions of transgenic mice to the analysis of germline toxicology.- Evaluation of the placenta: suggestions for a greater role in developmental toxicology.- Protective mechanisms in germ cells: stress proteins in spermatogenesis.- Molecular cloning and developmental pattern of expression of msj-1, a new male germ cell-specific DnaJ homologue.- Analysis of gene regulation in Sertoli cells by a gene trap approach.- Biochemical characterization of benomyl inhibition on endometrial growth during decidualization in rats.- 4) Animal Risk Assessment. In Vivo / In Vitro Comparative Analysis.- An overviewof current in vivo test procedures to reproductive toxicology.- A new assay to assess aneuploidy in human-hamster embryos.- Single day treatment - a feasible tool in revealing not dependent on maternal toxicity teratogenic potential.- The effect of parathion on mouse testicular and epididymal development cultured in chicken allantochorion.- Evaluation of xenoestrogenic effects in fish on different organization levels.- Effects on female fertility and germinal cells in prepubertal and adult rats (Rattus norvegicus) after X-ray irradiation.