Endocrine Abstracts

From human epidemiological and related studies, there is strong (indirect) evidence that common male reproductive disorders that manifest at birth (cryptorchidism, hypospadias) or in adulthood (low sperm count, low testosterone, primary hypogonadism) may have a common origin in foetal life due to impaired androgen (testosterone) production or action; the so-called testicular dysgenesis syndrome (TDS) hypothesis. Whilst the foetal origin of cryptorchidism and hypospadias is sel...

Background: Fetal glucocorticoid overexposure is associated with low birthweight and increased cardiovascular disease risk in the offspring. Such ‘programmed effects’ can be transmitted across generations through both male and female lines. Disruption of a germline epigenetic reprogramming pathway, characterised by genome-wide erasure and subsequent re-establishment of DNA methylation, may underpin the intergenerational transmission of programmed effects. We used a r...