DES, Federal Food Regulation, and Consumer Confidence
DES, Federal Food Regulation, and Consumer Confidence.
Cancer from Beef uses the DES story to explore the intersection of institutional science, government rule making, and growing skepticism in popular attitudes toward both public protection and scientific authority. Marcus concludes that DES provides a case study in the attempt to control uncertainty in our lives when neither science nor government seem effective. The DES debate thus reflects a postmodern American accommodation with doubt, moral relativism, and the rueful calculus of cost and benefit.
DiEthylStilbestrol usage review buttress the need for adequate and rigorous research into the use of drugs in pregnancy and ensure that they do more good than harm before being introduced
Abstract
DiEthylStilbestrol usage review buttress the need for adequate and rigorous research into the use of drugs in pregnancy and ensure that they do more good than harm before being introduced for consumption.
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of in utero exposure to diethylstilboestrol on the menstrual cycle.
STUDY DESIGN: This was a prospective cohort study of 198 diethylstilbestrol-exposed women and 162 unexposed controls, recruited from women whose mothers participated in a randomized trial of diethylstilbestrol in pregnancy at the Chicago Lying-In Hospital from 1950 to 1952. Women with severe menstrual abnormality were excluded from the study.
RESULTS: Diethylstilbestrol exposure was associated with a statistically significantly decreased duration of menstrual bleeding of approximately one half day and a lower average daily bleeding score (self-reported). We found no evidence for effects of diethylstilbestrol exposure on cycle length or variability of cycle length. Exposure was not related to symptoms of dysmenorrhea.
CONCLUSIONS: The decreased duration and amount of menstrual bleeding among diethylstilbestrol-exposed women could be due to direct effects on the uterus. The lack of an effect on cycle length and variability appears to indicate that endocrine function is not grossly disturbed in those women studied.
Sources:
Effects on the menstrual cycle of in utero exposure to diethylstilbestrol, NCBI, PMID: 8141188, Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1994 Mar;170(3):709-15.
Full text: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, S0002937894702683, DOI: 10.1016/S0002-9378(94)70268-3.
Feminization of the male mouse reproductive tract after prenatal exposure to DES
1994 Study Abstract
Feminization of the male mouse reproductive tract after prenatal exposure to Diethylstilbestrol.
Exposure to estrogens during critical stages of development has been reported to cause irreversible changes in estrogen target tissues such as the reproductive tract. In fact, recent studies using mice describe prenatal estrogen exposure resulting in the expression of the major estrogen-inducible uterine secretory protein, lactoferrin (LF), by the seminal vesicles of the male offspring. Thus, we have studied the role of estrogens in abnormal and normal gene expression in the developing male reproductive tract using LF and seminal vesicle secretory protein IV (SVS IV), an androgen-regulated murine seminal vesicle secretory protein, as markers. Lactoferrin and SVS IV protein and mRNA expression were studied in histological samples by using the techniques of in situ hybridization (ISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC). Seminal vesicle secretory protein IV was expressed in all (100%) epithelial cells of the control seminal vesicle, but this protein was decreased by castration. However, LF expression was undetectable by ISH or IHC in control seminal vesicle epithelium. Lactoferrin was inducible in 2% of the seminal vesicle epithelial cells from adult castrated mice treated with estradiol 17 beta (E2; 20 micrograms/kg/day for 3 days), indicating that a small percentage of the seminal vesicle cells could be induced to secrete LF after modification of the endocrine environment. Prenatal DES treatment (100 micrograms./kg. maternal body weight on days 9 through 16 of gestation) resulted in the male offspring exhibiting constitutive expression of LF in 5% of the seminal vesicle epithelial cells, while expression of the androgen-regulated protein SVS IV was slightly decreased. The maximal contrast between LF and SVS IV expression was observed in prenatally DES-treated mice that were subsequently castrated as adults and further treated with E2; LF was detected in 40% of the epithelial cells in these mice. Double immunostaining techniques revealed that epithelial cells which were making LF had ceased production of SVS IV. Since a large percentage of the epithelial cells in the intact prenatal DES exposed male was capable of expressing the normal gene product, SVS IV, it was concluded that DES treatment during prenatal development appears to imprint or induce estrogenic sensitivity in the adult seminal vesicle, causing increased production of LF. The results suggest that this altered protein response may be an example of atypical gene expression in male reproductive tract tissues following hormonal manipulation early in development.
Sources:
Molecular feminization of mouse seminal vesicle by prenatal exposure to diethylstilbestrol: altered expression of messenger RNA, NCBI, PMID: 8158792, 1994 May;151(5):1370-8.
