Exposure to ethinyl estradiol prenatally and/or after sexual maturity induces endometriotic and precancerous lesions in uteri and ovaries of mice

Eiji Koike, Yoshiko Yasuda, Mitsuru Shiota, Masao Shimaoka, Mitsuhiro Tsuritani, Hiroyoshi Konishi, Harufumi Yamasaki, Katsumi Okumoto, Hiroshi Hoshiai
Congenital anomalies · 2012 · vol. 53(1) , pp. 9–17 · doi:10.1111/j.1741-4520.2012.00383.x · PMID:23480353 · W1822622859
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 10 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

Prenatal and/or adult exposure to ethinyl estradiol induced endometriotic and precancerous lesions in the uteri and ovaries of mice, accompanied by increased aromatase expression.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

Unrecognizable exposure to estrogenic substance may cause estrogen-dependent diseases, endometriosis and cancer. Pregnant mice (ICR/Jcl, CLEA) were exposed to 0.01 mg ethinyl estradiol (EE2 )/kg per day or vehicle (olive oil) through oral intubation from day 11 to 17 of gestation. They delivered their offspring and raised them. When the experimental female F1 mice were at 8 weeks of age, they were not exposed to EE2 or to the same dose of EE2 or to vehicle twice a week until 20 weeks of age. The control female F1 mice were exposed to the same dose of EE2 or vehicle alone, similarly. All mice were killed at 28 weeks of age. The resected uteri and ovaries were processed for microscopic examinations and for determination of the aromatase mRNA levels and aromatase protein through quantitative RT-PCR and Western blotting, respectively. Adenomyosis and adenocarcinomatous changes were significantly discernible in the EE2 -exposed uteri, and incidence of ectopic glands and serous cysts were significantly increased in the prenatally EE2 -exposed ovaries as compared with respective controls. Significant upregulation of the aromatase mRNA was seen in the prenatally EE2 -exposed uteri and in the EE2 -exposed ovaries. The aromatase protein was identified in all ovaries examined, and in EE2 -exposed uteri but not in controls and confirmed its localization in eutopic and ectopic glands, abnormally proliferated lesions and the lining of the cysts. Taken together, continuous EE2 exposure may cause endometriotic and precancerous lesions due to excessive estrogen synthesis in both target organs.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosisadenomyosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Ethinyl Estradiol Ovary Precancerous Conditions Sexual Maturation Uterus Animals Blotting, Western Endometriosis Ethinyl Estradiol Ethinyl Estradiol Female Mice Mice, Inbred ICR Ovary Precancerous Conditions Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Uterus

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (49)

Cited by (10)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-11T06:19:48.454388+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:19:05.543671+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK