Although benign, uterine leiomyomas occur with high frequency and significant morbidity in reproductive-age women, and they present a significant health problem. Leiomyomas develop in the uterine myometrium and are sensitive to ovarian hormones, making them potential target sites for endocrine disruptors. Here we utilize cell lines derived from rat uterine leiomyomas to determine if a panel of ...

Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are capable of persisting in the environment, transporting between phase media and accumulating to high levels, implying that they could pose a risk of causing adverse effects to human health and the environment. Consequently, most OCPs are designated as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and even as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). The objective of this...

Data from an in-person interview study of 622 white men with newly diagnosed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and 1245 population-based controls in Iowa and Minnesota were used to measure the risk associated with farming occupation and specific agricultural exposures. Men who ever farmed were at slightly elevated risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (odds ratio = 1.2, 95% confidence interval = 1.0-1.5) that wa...

Focused open-vessel microwave-assisted extraction (FOV-MAE), closed-vessel microwave-assisted extraction (CV-MAE), and accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) were used for extraction before determination of organochlorine compounds (polychlorinated biphenyls, DDT, toxaphene, chlordane, hexachlorobenzene, hexachlorocyclohexanes, and dieldrin) in cod liver and fish fillets. Wet samples were extract...

Histamine-containing enterochromaffin-like (ECL) cells are numerous in the gastric mucosa. They operate under the control of gastrin. ECL-cell tumors (gastric carcinoids) may arise as a consequence of sustained hypergastrinemia. For reasons unknown, such tumors have a female preponderance both in laboratory animals and humans. The present study consisted of four experiments exploring the possib...

Organochlorine chemical residues and elemental contaminants were measured in northern pike (Esox lucius), longnose sucker (Catostomus catostomus), and burbot (Lota lota) from 10 sites in the Yukon River Basin (YRB) during 2002. Contaminant concentrations were compared to historical YRB data and to toxicity thresholds for fish and piscivorous wildlife from the scientific literature. A risk analy...

BACKGROUND Organochlorine insecticides (OCs) have historically been used worldwide to control insects, although most have now been banned in developed countries. Evidence for an association between OC exposures and cancer predominantly comes from occupational and population based-studies among men. We evaluated the association between the use of specific OCs and cancer among the female spouses ...

BACKGROUND Telomere length (TL) in surrogate tissues may be influenced by environmental exposures. OBJECTIVE We aimed to determine whether lifetime pesticides use is associated with buccal cell TL. METHODS We examined buccal cell TL in relation to lifetime use of 48 pesticides for 1,234 cancer-free white male pesticide applicators in the Agricultural Health Study (AHS), a prospective cohort...

Cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) and cave swallows (P. fulva) were sampled during the breeding season at several locations in the Rio Grande, Texas, to evaluate the potential effects of environmental contaminants on P450 aromatase activity in brain and gonads and DNA damage in blood cells. The tritiated water-release aromatase assay was used to measure aromatase activity and flow cytom...

Estrogens are defined by their ability to induce the proliferation of cells of the female genital tract. The wide chemical diversity of estrogenic compounds precludes an accurate prediction of estrogenic activity on the basis of chemical structure. Rodent bioassays are not suited for the large-scale screening of chemicals before their release into the environment because of their cost, complexi...