Effects of intrauterine and pubertal testosterone cipyonate exposure on the male and female senile gerbil's prostate

Abstract

The prostate is not a gland found exclusively in male mammals, being found in female of some rodents and also in woman. Its development occurs influenced by an androgenic control finely and precisely regulated so that sensible interferences can predispose this gland to develop benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer during aging life. Researches have showed that the AR dependent gene expression program during prostatic organogenesis is very similar to that installed during prostate cancer. Moreover, a growing number of studies have showed that the predisposition to prostatic disorders has its origin during moments of early life. These aspects are of interest and precaution, taking account that have been growing the number of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) to that the human being are exposed. EDCs have the potential to compete with androgen receptor (AR) present in prostatic tissue, having the capability to activate cascade of events that take to expression of specific genes and even causing epigenetic alterations on DNA. These interferences, more dangerous during critically periods of development, can take to the imprint of prostatic cells in an irreversible manner. Therefore, understand which are the mechanisms that can predispose this gland to develop lesion during the life is of extremely relevance, allowing new discoveries and treatments for prostatic diseases. Therefore, the aim of this work is to analyze the prostate of senile Mongolian gerbil male and female exposed to testosterone during intrauterine and pubertal phase. To this, the prostate of these animals will be submitted to the morphometric, stereological, serologic, immunohistochemistry and ultrastructural analyses. With the results, possible mechanisms involving androgenic imprint could be elucidate, contributing to the understanding of the relation between these mechanisms and the appearance of prostatic lesions during senescence.