During prenatal and early postnatal periods of development, multiple environmental factors have profound and long-lasting effects on the immune and reproductive functions. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of maternal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure (50 mg/kg, i.p.) at day 12 of pregnancy and estradiol antagonist treatment (fulvestrant, 1.5 mg/kg, s.c. in neck) at postnatal days 5-14 (PND5-14) with high estradiol levels on reproductive parameters in adult rat males. Serum steroid concentrations were measured in male offspring at PND80 by ELISA. Body, testis weights and ano-genital distance (AGD) were recorded at different stages of postnatal development. Testis was also processed to cytohistological studies at PND80. Our results demonstrate that body weight was decreased from PND14 to 30 after prenatal LPS treatment and was increased after fulvestrant treatment. AGD was decreased after prenatal LPS treatment and was increased after fulvestrant injections. Testis weight, testosterone level, seminiferous tubule diameter, and number of Sertoli and spermatid cells were also decreased in rats exposed prenatally to LPS and were restored to the normal control level after fulvestrant treatment. According to results, we can conclude that the development of sexual disorders in males after prenatal immune stress is potentiated by estradiol during the pre-pubertal period.
Keywords: prenatal inflammation stress; sex steroids; testis development.
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