[Influence of environmental pollutants on human gestation: Cause of adult pathologies].

This review explains the epigenetic imprinting mechanisms by which the delayed effects generated by prenatal or early childhood exposure to chemical pollutants are produced. Pubmed and Embase databases were reviewed to identify studies published between 2005 and 2018, along with articles considered pioneers in this field. We also included data generated in our Laboratory.

Geologic and anthropogenic sources of contamination in settled dust of a historic mining port city in northern Chile: health risk implications.

Chile is the leading producer of copper worldwide and its richest mineral deposits are found in the Antofagasta Region of northern Chile. Mining activities have significantly increased income and employment in the region; however, there has been little assessment of the resulting environmental impacts to residents. The port of Antofagasta, located 1,430 km north of Santiago, the capital of Chile, functioned as mineral stockpile until 1998 and has served as a copper concentrate stockpile since 2014.

[The impact of tap water fluoridation on human health].

The purpose of this review is to describe the osteological, neurological, endocrine and dermatological effects of fluoride ingestion. Additional aims are to evaluate whether the Chilean tap water fluoridation program has had any impact on dental health, and analyze the basis for the Chilean elementary school milk fluoridation program, which is targeted at children living in places where tap water has a fluoride concentration less than 0.3 mg/L, without any artificial fluoridation process.

[Influence of CYP3A4/5 polymorphisms in the pharmacokinetics of levonorgestrel: a pilot study].

Introduction: Levonorgestrel a synthetic progestagen used for endometriosis, dysmenorrhea and emergency contraception, is quickly and completely absorbed in the digestive tract. levonorgestrel is predominantly metabolised through hepatic routes that utilise the CYP3A system (CYP3A4 and CYP3A5).

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the association between variant alleles of CYP3A4*1B and CYP3A5*3 polymorphisms and the pharmacokinetics of levonorgestrel.

Daidzein-estrogen interaction in the rat uterus and its effect on human breast cancer cell growth.

Sex hormone replacement therapy provides several advantages in the quality of life for climacteric women. However, estrogen-induced cell proliferation in the uterus and mammary gland increases the risk of cancer development in these organs. The lower incidence of mammary cancer in Asian women as compared with Western women has been attributed to high intake of soy isoflavones, including genistein.

Effect of basal hormone profile on the formation of the vaginal bacterial cenosis in women.

Adhesion activity of L. acidophilus NK1, L. fermentum 90 TS4, and C.

Phytoestrogen effects on vaginal microbiocenosis of Sprague-Dawley rats.

Phytoestrogens present in the plants endemic for Chile were studied. The effects of phytoextract [specimen of preparation No. 181 (fraction b)] on target tissues were similar to those of estradiol.

Effect of prenatal exposure to lead on estrogen action in the prepubertal rat uterus.

Lead is a widely spread environmental pollutant known to affect both male and female reproductive systems in humans and experimental animals and causes infertility and other adverse effects. The present paper investigated the effects of prenatal exposure to lead on different parameters of estrogen stimulation in the uterus of the prepubertal rat. In prenatally and perinatally exposed rats, estrogen-induced endometrial eosinophilia, endometrial stroma edema, and eosinophil migration towards the endometrium, and uterine luminal epithelial hypertrophy are enhanced while several other responses to estrogen appear unchanged.

Genistein selectively inhibits estrogen-induced cell proliferation and other responses to hormone stimulation in the prepubertal rat uterus.

Sex hormone replacement therapy helps improve quality of life in climacteric women. However, estrogen-induced cell proliferation in the uterus and mammary gland increases the risk for cancer in these organs. The lower incidence of mammary cancer in Asian women than in western women has been attributed to high intake of soy isoflavones, including genistein.

Effect of chronic exposure to lead on estrogen action in the prepubertal rat uterus.

Lead is a widely spread environmental pollutant known to affect both male and female reproductive systems in humans and in experimental animals. The present study investigated the effect of a chronic exposure to lead on different parameters of estrogen stimulation in the uteri of prepubertal rats. Chronic exposure to lead enhanced some parameters of estrogen stimulation, inhibited other estrogenic responses, while the remainder were unaltered.

Imprinting: perinatal exposures cause the development of diseases during the adult age.

Since the early reports linking the development of clear cell cervicovaginal adenocarcinoma in young women with diethylstilbestrol treatment of their mothers during pregnancy, it became clear that perinatal exposure to several substances may induce irreversible alterations, that can be detected later in life. Current evidence suggests that these substances induce, by the mechanism of imprinting, alterations of the differentiation of several cell-types, resulting in the development of disease during the adult age. The most known delayed effects to prenatal exposure to agents displaying hormone action, pollutants, food additives and natural food components, substances of abuse and stress by the mechanism of imprinting are described.

[Patients with rheumatoid arthritis: study of the correlation between density of glucocorticoid receptors in synovial cells and clinical response to steroidal treatment].

Background: The target cellular response to glucocorticoids is proportional to the concentrations or affinity of specific receptors to these substances.

Aim: To look for a correlation between glucocorticoid receptor concentrations in synovial wall cells and the clinical response to steroidal treatment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Patients And Methods: Twenty eight patients with rheumatoid arthritis were studied.

[Role of sex hormones in autoimmune diseases].

There is increasing body of evidence to suggest that sex hormones may be closely involved in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases in humans. In the present article we discuss heteroimmune response differences between males and females and the roles of gender and sex hormones in autoimmune diseases in various species. The general conclusions are the following.

Early postnatal androgenization imprints selective changes in the action of estrogens in the rat uterus.

Exposure of animals perinatally to some hormonally active agents may imprint permanent changes on the action of related hormones. The present study investigated the effects of early postnatal androgenization on various genomic responses to estrogen in the uterus of prepubertal rats. Female rats were androgenized at postnatal ages of 1, 5, or 13 days with a single s.

Intraarticular progesterone inhibits 3H-dexamethasone binding to synovial cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis. A study by dry radioautographic technique.

Glucocorticoids are known to exert their antiinflammatory effects through an interaction with specific hormone receptors. Progesterone is able to bind to these glucocorticoid receptors exerting either agonistic or antagonistic actions. We have reported that a single intraarticular injection of progesterone exerts a local antiinflammatory action in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), suggesting an agonistic effect of progesterone on local glucocorticoid receptors.

Effect of eosinophil-degranulating estrogens on spleen eosinophils and white pulp/red pulp ratio.

A role for eosinophils in the immune reaction has not been yet established. Considering that these leukocytes accumulate in lymphoid organs under glucocorticoid stimulation, we explored the possibility that they participate in the depression of immune reactions induced by these hormones and that they degranulate to exert this action. In this context, we investigated the dose effect of three estrogens on the number and degranulation of spleen red pulp eosinophils and on the percentage of spleen cross sectional area comprising white pulp.

Effect of ketotifen on the distribution and degranulation of uterine eosinophils in estrogen-treated rats.

Eosinophil leukocytes migrate from the blood to the uterus under estrogen stimulation, redistribute through uterine extravascular compartment, degranulate in the organ, and release agents that are involved in several parameters of estrogen action. Agents that induce blood eosinopenia, block their migration to the uterus, interfere with their redistribution within the organ or modify their degranulation, selectively interfere with eosinophil-mediated responses to estrogen. The present study investigated whether ketotifen, an antiallergic agent that inhibits allergen-induced eosinophil degranulation, interferes with estrogen-induced eosinophil migration to the uterus and their subsequent degranulation.

Prenatal androgenization selectively modifies some responses to oestrogen in the prepubertal rat uterus.

Exposure of fetuses to some hormonally active agents may imprint permanent changes on the action of related hormones. These changes can be detected in adulthood as a modification of the degree of responsiveness to hormone action. The present study describes the effect of prenatal androgenization on the various responses to oestrogen in different types of cells in the uterus of prepubertal rats.

Intraarticular progesterone: effects of a local treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.

The antiinflammatory effect of a single intraarticular injection of progesterone was investigated in 12 patients with rheumatoid arthritis. A local, but no systemic decline of inflammation was observed in 10 of them for at least one month. The average local scores of inflammation at Days 7, 14, 21 and 30 after injection were significantly lower than pretreatment scores (p less than 0.

The estrogenic responses to clomiphene in the different cell types of the rat uterus: morphometrical evaluation.

The present study was designed to investigate the dose-response of clomiphene on several estrogenic responses in the immature rat uterus and to compare it to available data on estradiol-17 beta. A dissociation was demonstrated among the different estrogenic responses induced by clomiphene. Very high doses of clomiphene were needed to induce the 6-h uterine eosinophilia and deep endometrial edema, and maximal response levels were not reached at any dose studied.

Differential potency of oestradiol-17 beta and diethylstilboestrol on separate groups of responses in the rat uterus.

The present study describes the effects of oestradiol-17 beta and diethylstilboestrol (DES) on several oestrogenic responses in the immature rat uterus Diethylstilboestrol was weaker than oestradiol in inducing uterine eosinophilia, water imbibition and mitoses, as strong as oestradiol in eliciting epithelial hypertrophy at 24 h after treatment, and stronger than oestradiol in eliciting the reduction of epithelial cell height at 6 h after treatment and myometrial cell hypertrophy at 24 h after treatment. In addition, differences among the mitotic responses to oestrogen of the different uterine cell types were also detected. The above dissociation of the effects of DES and oestradiol-17 beta is in agreement with the hypothesis that eosinophil-mediated non-genomic responses, genomic responses and cell proliferation are mediated by independent mechanisms, involving different receptors which may have different affinities for both compounds.