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Introduction
The Reproductive Cycle
Reproductive Development and Sexual Differentiation
Gametogenesis
Neonatal Development
Infantile Development
Pubertal Development
Rodent Models of Puberty
Selected Examples of Chemicals That Alter the Onset of Pubertal Landmarks in Rats After Acute In Utero and/or Lactational Exposures
Selected Examples of Chemicals That Alter the Onset of Pubertal Landmarks in Rats After Peripubertal Exposures
Sexual Maturity
Testicular Structure and Function
Mating Behavior in the Rat
Fertilization
Implantation
Placenta
Pregnancy
Parturition
Lactation
Senescence
Endocrine Disruption (Including Screening and Puberty)
Testing for Reproductive Toxicity
Screens and Multigeneration Studies
Testing for Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals
Testing Pharmaceuticals
Newer Guidelines and Approaches
Evaluation of Toxicity to Reproduction
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Any evaluation of toxicity to reproduction will have as an important consideration that events may not only be on the adults having impact on their likelihood to have children, but also impact the viability and quality of life of their potential offspring and feasibly even affect later generations. That chemicals can adversely affect reproduction in males and females is not a new concept, one only has to look at the importance of drugs as contraceptives to realize how sensitive the reproductive system can be to external chemical influences to disrupt this process. Of course in these cases, the failure of normal reproduction is a desired outcome in a contraceptive, but unfortunately we have had a number of catastrophes in which such failure has been unintentional. Many of the classic examples in chemical workers, or contamination of groundwater from chemical exposure such as dibromochloropropane (DBCP) or kepone (chlordecone) have shown the sensitivity of human reproduction to these specific exposures (reviewed by Cannon et al., 1978; Faroon et al., 1995; Winker and Rudiger, 2006). There have been significant improvements in our ability to test for effects on reproduction for chemicals, agrochemicals, and drugs, but unfortunately such adverse episodes continue to occur in, for example, the more recent reports of the effects of 2-bromopropane in chemical workers (both male and female) in Korea (reviewed by Boekelheide et al., 2004).
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Recent trends in human fertility, fecundity—changing social influences (age at which women have their first child), and the knowledge that populations in many western countries are no longer self-sustaining, coupled with the advent of ...