Evidence of altered brain sexual differentiation in mice exposed perinatally to low, environmentally relevant levels of bisphenol A.

Humans are routinely exposed to bisphenol A (BPA), an estrogenic chemical present in food and beverage containers, dental composites, and many products in the home and workplace. BPA binds both classical nuclear estrogen receptors and facilitates membrane-initiated estrogenic effects. Here we explore the ability of environmentally relevant exposure to BPA to affect anatomical and functional measures of brain development and sexual differentiation.

Guinea pig GnRH: localization and physiological activity reveal that it, not mammalian GnRH, is the major neuroendocrine form in guinea pigs.

The isolation of GnRH cDNA from guinea pig hypothalamus predicted a novel form of GnRH with two unique amino acid substitutions relative to all known forms of this essential decapeptide. The predicted substitution at amino acid 2 in guinea pig (gp) GnRH was particularly intriguing because of the proposed importance of position 2 for binding and activation of the GnRH receptor. In the present study, gpGnRH was synthesized, and a specific antibody was generated and used to assess translation of the gpGnRH transcript.