BACKGROUND Doxorubicin is a potent chemotherapeutic drug used against a variety of cancers. It acts through interaction with polymerases and topoisomerase II and free radical production. Doxorubicin activity is not specific to cancer cells and can also damage healthy cells, especially those undergoing rapid proliferation, such as spermatogonia. In previous studies our group showed that etoposid...

Considerable attention has recently been focused on environmental chemicals that disrupt the reproductive system by altering steroid receptor function. Although numerous in vitro and in vivo methods have been shown to be useful approaches for identifying chemicals that can disrupt reproduction through a direct interaction with the estrogen receptor, it is imperative that the protocols selected ...

The aim of this study was to analyse the effects type extracurricular sport on body composition, respiratory parameters, and physical condition in prepubertal pubertal girls. Four hundred eighty-five female athletes (aged 8–14) from different sports participated study. They were gathered into four groups according typology maturity level: ‘prepubertal girls who practise collective sports’ (PRE-...

The aims of this study conducted on rats were to determine mast cell (MC) proliferation on undescended testes (UDTs); whether there is a correlation between MC proliferation and testicular damage; and whether testicular damage can be prevented with administration of an MC blocker. Sixty-five newborn male rats were divided into three groups. During the neonatal period, unilateral UDTs were exper...

Peritubular cells that surround the seminiferous tubules have been shown to produce a paracrine factor, termed P-Mod-S, that has dramatic effects on Sertoli cell function in vitro and is postulated to be important in the control of testicular function. The current study was designed to determine whether P-Mod-S has the ability to regulate Sertoli cell function during pubertal development. Serto...

OBJECTIVE Excitatory amino acids and serotonin are involved in the control of gonadotropin secretion. The actions of these neurotransmitters are interconnected and recently we have reported that 5-HT(1) and 5-HT(2) receptor agonists blunted (+/-)-alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA)-stimulated GH secretion in prepubertal rats. The present experiments were carried out ...

Few data are available on adolescent users because most behavioral studies on anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) abuse have been performed in adults. Studies evaluating the impact of long-term effects of AAS abuse on the prepubertal phase are even more uncommon. Accordingly, this study was developed to test the hypothesis that changes induced by the use of AAS during the adolescent phase may be...

Chronic administration of oestrogen to rats during the infantile/prepubertal period provokes, at 28 days of age, complete loss of noradrenaline-labelled intrauterine sympathetic nerves. It is not known whether oestrogen inhibits the growth or causes the degeneration of developing uterine sympathetic nerves, or whether the uterus recovers its innervation following cessation of infantile/prepuber...