No description available.

Typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

No description available.

For nearly forty years diethylstilbestrol (DES) was administered to pregnant women to maintain healthy pregnancies. During this time, it is estimated that several million men and women have been exposed to DES during sometime of their life. The most common period of exposure was during fetal development. Although rarely used for the maintenance of pregnancy now, its current medical use is restricted to certain clinical situations such as breast and prostate cancer therapies in adults. Thus, DES exposure spans the entire lifetime, from prenatal to geriatric age. Since the early 1950s, health risks were beginning to be associated with prenatal DES treatment. So far only reproductive problems such as infertility, neoplastic diseases of the cervix and vagina and testicular cancers have been well-documented in DES cases. Immunological abnormalities associated with DES are only now beginning to be recognized. Self-reported cases and questionnaire-based studies have revealed increased incidence of infections and autoimmune diseases in DES exposed people. Animal studies that have examined the immunological effects of DES treatment are largely restricted to one gender, or to one dose of DES or to the developmental period. This is an important issue since human exposure to DES occurred in both men and women, at all ages and, at a wide-range of doses. The purpose of these studies was to investigate the immunological consequences resulting from the exposure to DES. Since sensitivity can vary between genders, dose and at the time of exposure, it is critical to investigate the DES-induced immunological changes during all stages of life in both genders. To address these critical gaps in the literature, we examined the immunomodulatory effects of adult and prenatal exposure to DES in males and females. Our findings show that DES effects were evident in both the thymus and spleen. DES markedly affected the apoptosis of thymocytes and the ability of splenic lymphocytes to proliferate in response to stimulants and secrete vital cytokines such as interferon-gamma. Our notable findings were that in-utero exposure to DES resulted in profound alterations in lymphocyte functionality, which were noticed as late as one-year of age. This suggests that alterations to the in utero environment can have deleterious consequences that may be long lasting. These studies have profound implications to the humans and animals exposed to DES, and indirectly to a whole range of other estrogenic compounds. / Master of Science

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1956 B37 / Master of Science

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1956 B77 / Master of Science

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1963 W95 / Master of Science

Diethylstilbestrol (DES) is one of the synthetic estrogen available today for therapeutic use. It is also referred to as a carcinogenic agent, with a great number of side effects reported between maternal ingestion of DES during pregnancy, as a postovulatory agent to prevent implantation and possible occurrence of carcinoma in the progeny of women known to be aborterse. In the present study, experiments were done to determine the effects of DES on the estrogen titer of the maternal, fetal and neo-natal plasma ovarian homogenates of female Long-Evans rats. Adult and 30-day old rats were treated via stomach intubation with 35 mg/2cc/kg body wt of DES. The estrous cycle of the rats was monitored and vaginal smear cell counts were determined in 0.5 cc saline smear volume. Radioimmunoassay was used to determine the estradiol levels in the plasma and ovarian homogenates. Results showed no changes in the estrous cycle synchrony of the maternal rats, while the estrous cycle of the treated 30-dayold rats has synchronous. The vaginal smear cell count was significantly greater in the two groups of treated rats studied than in the controls. Comparing the mean estradrol value for the plasma and ovarian homogenates in the maternal rats, an obvious increase in the plasma E2 level was obtained as compared to small, decrease in the mean value of ovarian E2 level. There was no difference in the mean value of pooled ovarian homogenate E2 level of the control saline, control and DES-treated 19-1/2-day old rats. A significant decrease in the plasma E2 mean value of 30-day old treated rats was obtained when compared to both control groups. There was no significant increase in ovarian homogenate E2 level of both treated and the control groups. In light of these results, DES has a secondary effect, asynchronous cell proliferation in the vaginal epithelia leading to prolonged specific stages of the estrous cycle of the young adult female rats. Also, DES causes an increase in plasma E2 levels of treated maternal rats and a decrease in plasrna E2 levels of 30-dayold rats. Finally, DES has no effect on the estrogen level of the ovarian homogenates of the maternal, fetal and 30-clay-old young Long-Evans female rats.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1957 V82 / Master of Science

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1957 S82 / Master of Science