Karin Damm Jørgensen

A dose-finding study of in utero and lactational exposure to diethylstilboestrol and flutamide in 129/Sv mice.

The purpose of the study was to test the experimental conditions and find the appropriate dose range for further investigations of the disruptive effects of oestrogens and antiandrogens on the development of testis. Groups of four 129/Sv mice were exposed from day 6 after mating until weaning to 1, 10 or 100 microg/kg/day of the non-steroidal oestrogen diethylstilboestrol and to 0.1, 1 or 10 mg/kg/day of the non-steroidal antiandrogen flutamide. The number of implantation sites, the litter size and reproductive parameters were examined and nipple development, anogenital distance and testicular morphology were investigated in the offspring. Dose-related post-implantation loss was seen in both diethylstilboestrol- and flutamide-treated dams and the mean litter size was smaller in the groups given the high dosages of diethylstilboestrol and flutamide. Disturbance of testicular development was seen in males exposed to diethylstilboestrol. Because of the small data material, no statistical analyses were performed. Our findings indicate that very high doses of both diethylstilboestrol and flutamide given at early stages of gestation result in a high post-implantation loss and should be avoided in further experiments using this strain which is known to have a poor reproductive performance. Exposure of the dams before mating may better reflect human exposure, but will presumably require even lower dose levels.

Biosynthetic Human Growth Hormone Identical to Authentic Material

The major component of human growth hormone (hGH) is a protein with 191 amino acid residues, and a molecular weight of approximately 22,000 D (22K-hGH). A minor component which constitutes about 5% of the more abundant form has a molecular weight of approximately 20,000 D. The minor form is derived from the major by deletion of 15 amino acid residues (32–46 of the 22K-isomer). Both molecules are single stranded, and two disulfide bridges stabilizes the structure. The N-terminus as well as the C-terminus is phenylalanine (Chawla et al., 1983).