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EFFECT OF BISPHENOL A ON TESTICULAR CELLS IN PREPUBERTAL MICE.
Kim, Jihyang1, Lee, Chang Joo1, Yoon, Yong-Dal1, 1
ABSTRACT- Environmental estrogens are man-made chemicals that can enter the body by ingestion or absorption through the skin and mimic the actions of estrogens. The present study was performed to investigate effect of bisphenol A (BPA) on the testicular funtion in prepubertal male mice. Four-week-old mice (ICR strain) were orally administrated with BPA at a dose of 2.4 mg/kg body weight. At 3 days after the treatment, mice were sacrificed and the weights of body, testis, and liver were weighed. Serum testosterone concentrations were decreased following BPA treatment compared with those of control. By morphometric analysis, it was shown that spermatozoa were partially disappeared and the number of multinucleated cells having greater than three nuclei were increased in seminiferous tubules of BPA-treated group. It was shown that Sertoli cell (TM4) were more sensitive to the exposure of BPA than Leydig cell (TM3) in vitro. Especially, up to 200 mM of BPA remarkably reduced the cell viabilities. The expression of phospholipase C (PLC) isozymes and protein kinase C (PKC) isozymes were not significant different. However, very low levels of PKCd were expressed in BPA-treated group. The expressions of phospholipase D2 (PLD2) were not changed in TM3 cells but significantly reduced in TM4 cells by the treatment of BPA compared to the control. Taken together, these results suggest that BPA affects Sertoli cells through Ca2+su-dependent, PLC-PKCd-PLD2 pathway as it acts like estrogen, and hence causes the impairment of spermatogenesis in male mouse.
KEY WORDS: bisphenol A, testosterone, phospholipase, protein kinase, testis, mouse