Dioxin Disrupts Prostate Development

Thomas A. Gasiewicz, Ph.D., University of Rochester Medical Center and Chad M. Vezina, Ph.D, and Richard E. Peterson, Ph.D.
University of Wisconsin Madison
NIEHS Grants R01ES009430, P30001247 (TAG), F32ES014284 (CMV), and R37ES001332 (REP)

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin in Madison have determined the mechanism by which dioxin disrupts prostate gland formation in laboratory mice. They found that when dioxin is administered maternally at between days 15 and 16 of gestation, the chemical inhibits the formation of certain prostate buds in two different regions (ventral and dorsolateral).

Members of this research team have previously shown that dioxin exposure during the fetal and neonatal periods decreases prostate size in mice and later that fetal dioxin exposure inhibited prostate budding thereby reducing the number of prostate ducts and causing the reduction in prostate size. There is also a growing body of scientific evidence that dioxin exposure in humans causes prostate cancer.

Experimental results show that hyperactivation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling pathway changes the patterning of the fetal urogenital sinus, and disrupting where prostate buds develop and where prostate lobes are formed. The current study presents a new paradigm of how in utero dioxin exposure disrupts prostate formation suggesting this same mechanism may in part explain how dioxin impairs the development of other organs and tissues.

Citation: Vezina CM, Allgeier SH, Moore RW, Lin TM, Bemis JC, Hardin HA, Gasiewicz TA, Peterson RE. Dioxin causes ventral prostate agenesis by disrupting dorsoventral patterning in developing mouse prostate. Toxicol Sci. 2008 Dec;106(2):488-96.