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PubMed1985

Alteration of behavioral sex differentiation by exposure to estrogenic compounds during a critical neonatal period: effects of zearalenone, methoxychlor, and estradiol in hamsters.

The present study was designed to determine if neonatal exposure to the estrogenic mycotoxin zearalenone or the weakly estrogenic pesticide methoxychlor could masculinize and/or defeminize the behavior of female hamsters. Neonatal hamsters were given a single sc injection of either zearalenone (1 mg/pup), methoxychlor (1 mg/pup), 17 beta-estradiol (E2) (40 micrograms/pup), or the vehicle 2 days after birth. After puberty, behavioral estrous cyclicity was measured. The females were then ovariectomized, treated with the male hormone testosterone, and tested for their ability to mount a receptive female (a behavior not normally displayed by female hamsters). Females treated neonatally with estradiol or zearalenone were masculinized but not defeminized, an effect consistent with perinatal exposure to low doses of sex hormones. Females in these two treatment groups displayed normal 4-day behavioral estrous cycles, but following ovariectomy and testosterone treatment they mounted a sexually receptive female at a frequency comparable to the males. Methoxychlor-treated females did not differ from controls. The mounting behavior of similarly treated males was unaffected by any of the chemicals. However, males receiving estradiol treatment had smaller testes, seminal vesicles, and cauda epididymides and 57% had epididymal cysts. These results demonstrate that a single exposure to a weakly estrogenic chemical like zearalenone during a critical developmental period can cause the brain to differentiate in a manner inconsistent with the female's genetic sex. This enables the female to respond to the activational influence of testosterone as an adult and readily mount a sexually receptive female. The failure of methoxychlor to alter reproductive development in the current study may be due to an inability of the neonatal hamster to convert methoxychlor to estrogenic metabolites.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

High-risk sex behavior among young street-recruited crack cocaine smokers in three American cities: an interim report. The Multicenter Crack Cocaine and HIV Infection Study Team.

Since crack cocaine appeared in urban areas in the United States in the mid-1980s, reports have suggested that crack smokers may be at increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including infection with HIV, because they have multiple sex partners, trade sex for money or drugs, and rarely use condoms. A cross-sectional survey is being conducted in urban neighborhoods in Miami, New York and San Francisco--where crack use is common--to explore these issues. Indigenous street outreach workers are recruiting men and women who are either current regular crack smokers or who have never smoked crack; each group is further stratified according to whether participants had ever injected drugs. Participants were interviewed about their sexual and drug-use practices. Overall, crack smokers, whether injectors or not, engaged in higher-risk sexual behaviors than nonsmokers, reported greater numbers of sex partners than nonsmokers, and were more likely than nonsmokers to have exchanged sex for money or drugs or to have had an STD. Differences between crack smokers and nonsmokers were generally greater among non-injectors than among injectors, and generally greater among women than among men. Condom use, although somewhat more common with paying than nonpaying partners, was infrequent overall. Most of the subjects had not been in substance abuse treatment in the preceding 12 months, and a majority had never been in substance abuse treatment. Education and prevention programs specifically targeted at crack smokers not currently in substance abuse treatment are needed to reach these high-risk persons.

Adult↗