Concern is mounting regarding the human health and environmental effects of bisphenol A (BPA), a high-production-volume chemical used in synthesis of plastics. We have reviewed the growing literature on effects of low doses of BPA, below 50 mg/(kg day), in laboratory exposures with mammalian model organisms. Many, but not all, effects of BPA are similar to effects seen in response to the model ...

During the past two decades, scientific interest and public health concern have shifted their focus from issues connected with overt clinical lead disease to the detection of subtle clinical and biochemical abberations.' This has brought about a change in the thinking on the health risks that are associated with lead toxicity.23 Although major emphasis has been set on lead hazards among pediatr...

Relaxin (RLN) belongs to a family of hormones structurally related to insulin and presents a broad spectrum of actions. Humans have three forms of RLN, encoded by three different genes (RLN1, RLN2 and RLN3), but nonprimate vertebrates have only two forms of relaxin (RLN1 and RLN3). RLN1 of these animals is encoded by Rln1, orthologous to the human RLN2 gene, and both genes, Rln1 and human RLN2,...

Many diseases and medications can affect the urinary system and its function. Assessment of the male genitalia is accomplished with inspection and palpation. It is important to chart what is seen, what is felt, and what the patient reports.

The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the avian reproductive system. Attention is given to the neuroendocrine regulation of hypothalamic and pituitary gland hormones as well as the target tissues regulated by these hormones. Emphasis is placed on the dynamics of the system and the effects of alterations resulting from environmental and other influences on the function of the r...

The male reproductive hormonal axis Maintenance of normal reproductive function is depend­ ent on the coordinated release of hormones in the hyp o­ thalamic−pituitary−testis cascade. Gonadotropin­releasing hormone (GnRH) is released in a pulsatile pattern into the pitu­ itary portal blood system from neuroendocrine cells in the basal hypothalamus and acts to stimulate gonadotropes in the anter­...

Recent phylogenetic analyses of sexual reproductive systems supported the evolutionary pathway from hermaphroditism to dioecy via gynodioecy in different groups of angiosperms. In this study, we explore the evolution of sexual reproductive systems in Daphne laureola L. (Thymelaeaceae), a species with variation in reproductive system among population. Sequences from the ITS region of the nuclear...