Endocrine Abstracts

Until recently, the concept that exogenous chemicals could possess hormonal properties was restricted to consideration of the estrogenicity of phytoestrogens and a few synthetic chemicals, effects first recognized in the 1930s. The picture has now enlarged considerably, and in the process, become more complex. Anti-androgens and biochemical inhibitors have been added to the list of hormonally active synthetic and natural products, and molecular approaches have enabled fundamen...

Detailed surveys of wild fish in English rivers have shown that endocrine disruption is a widespread phenomenon. Feminization of males is the effect most commonly observed. In one species of fish, the roach, 40% of the fish thought to be males show signs of endocrine disruption to varying degrees, with the evidence at different sites ranging from very low to 100%. The severity of endocrine disruption also varies, and ranges from fish with feminized reproductive ducts but no ot...

Gender or sex assignment is instantaneous at birth in the vast majority of infants. Rarely, the external genitalia are sufficiently ambiguous to render an assignment impossible and genetic, hormonal and radiological investigations are necessary before a decision can be reached about the sex of rearing. The commonest cause of such ambiguous genitalia is adrenal 21-hydroxylase deficiency (congenital adrenal hyperplasia) leading to virilisation of an affected female newborn. The ...

Phytoestrogens (PEs) have a weak affinity for the oestrogen receptor. There is, however, no consistent evidence that, on a normal diet, circulating levels of PEs reach sufficient concentrations to exert significant oestrogenic/anti-oestrogenic effects. Phytoestrogens have been implicated in other cellular actions, not all of which necessarily involve the oestrogen receptor. Studies on cell-free systems and cell lines have demonstrated dose-dependent inhibitory effects of PEs o...