Endocrine Abstracts

Cigarette smoke (CS) is well known to be very harmful to human body functions such as fertility, reproduction, and development. To elucidate the effect of CS on women’s fertility more definitely, we examined the histophaological characteristics of the uterus and ovary samples received from Korean Conformity Laboratories (KCL), which were obtained from the female rats exposed to the different amounts (low, medium, and high concentrations) of smoke of the standard cigarette (3R4F) for 2 h/day and 5 days/week for 28 days according to the OECD guidelines. The animals used for the present study were the spontaneously hypertensive female Wistar Kyoto (WK) rats. We manufactured tissue slides from uterus and ovary samples and evaluated maturation of follicle of ovary and uterus development through H&E and immunohistochemistry (IHC). As a result, we confirmed decreased maturation of follicle and abnormal uterus development by CS exposure. In IHC analysis on ovary tissues, the expression of PCNA was decreased, but the expression of Bax, a pro-apoptotic protein, and C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP), an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-stress marker, was increased by exposure to CS compared to the control (ovary tissues from non-exposed rats). For uterus, the thickness of inner wall of uterus was decreased by the exposure to CS at low and medium concentrations. In accordance with this result, the expression of PCNA was decreased, but the expression of Bax and CHOP was increased by exposure to CS at low and medium concentrations. However, acute exposure to CS at high level induced the abnormal over-growth of uterus wall. Taken together, the exposure of CS may have a harmful effect on women’s fertility and pregnancy by inducing decreased maturation of ovarian follicle and abnormal growth of uterus inner wall.