Environmental chemicals & cryptorchid rat model

What is it about?

There are several studies relating exposure to DBP or AA and reproductive disorders. At the same time, cryptorchidism is the most common male congenital abnormality and orchiopexy prevents the deleterious effects of cryptorchidism. In this sense, we decided to evaluate whether the condition of cryptorchidism could make the testis more sensitive to DBP or AA even after orchiopexy. We did 3 experimental protocols: (1) animals only exposed to chemicals, without surgery; (2) animals with surgery alone, without exposure; (3) animals submitted to cryptorchidism and orchiopexy associated with chemical exposure. Of note, chemical exposures were performed during the in utero and postnatal periods, up to euthanasia. We concluded that exposure to chemicals such as DBP or AA prevents the recovery of cryptorchid testes by orchiopexy.

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Why is it important?

To our knowledge, there are no other published papers testing this hypothesis and it is interesting to know that environmental contaminants should be considered when looking for factors that modulate human testicular disorders associated with cryptorchidism.