الفهرس 
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Abstract
Summary
Over the past years reproductive abnormalities were observed in wildlife. These included testicular feminization and declining birth rates. Reproductive development and function were also found to be disturbed; such disruptions included increased rates of testicular cancer, declined sperm count and quality. This drew attention towards the environmental estrogens also termed xenoestrogens. These were chemicals that had an estrogenic effect despite the fact that they had no structural resemblance with estrogens. Among these xenoestrogens, BPA which is worldwide used in production of polycarbonate plastic products. It rose to attention that the maternal environment during pregnancy would affect the fetuses.
Although prostatic secretions are not absolutely required for fertility, yet, fertility is impaired in absence of a prostate. Benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostatic carcinoma are two diseases of the prostate that had greatly concerned the researchers. That is why the prostate had been chosen by the present study. Male albino rats were used as a model for evaluating the effect of BPA on prostate.
Sixty pregnant female rats were divided into two experimental groups: in group A, pregnant rats were fed with tocopherol-stripped corn oil only (control), in group B the pregnant rats were fed with BPA (5 µg/kg per day)
On gestation D8, females were ingested orally with the chemicals according to the described groups till day of parturition (D23). After parturition, pups were left with lactating mothers until day of scarification.
Male pups of the two groups were identified and classified according to day of scarification into:
• Subgroups IA & IB (dissection on PND 10).
• Subgroups IIA & IIB (dissection on PND 20).
• Subgroups IIIA & IIIB (dissection on PND 30).
• Subgroups IVA & IVB (dissection on PND 60).
Prostatic specimens were obtained from all subgroups and they were processed to get paraffin blocks. They were stained for hematoxylin and eosin, Masson’s Trichrome, AgNORs and immunostained for Ki-67. Also prostatic tissues were processed for ultrastructural study.
Quantitative morphometric study was done to detect epithelial height in groups III and IV. Also area percent occupied by blue colour of collagen fibers was detected in Masson’s Trichrome stained sections in all groups. Counting the number of AgNOR dots per nucleus was done for all groups. Area percent occupied by strong brown immunoreactivity was detected in Ki-67 immunostained sections in all groups. Data from image analyzer were statistically analyzed.
Results of this work revealed that prostate growth was retarded in pups of BPA treated animals compared with the control ones. This was manifested by the persistence of epithelial buds upto PND 20, the time by which complete luminization should have occurred. In PND 30 prostates showed epithelial hyperplasia and the epithelial height was significantly higher than that of the control. In PND 60 prostates showed appearance of PIN lesions which are considered as precancerous lesions that precede prostatic carcinoma by about ten years.
Increased stromal amount was evident in the neonates of BPA treated animals. It was revealed to be significantly higher than in the control. Also, proliferation of prostatic epithelial and stromal cells was detected from the significant increase in Ki-67 immunolabelling. In addition, proliferation of epithelial cells was detected by the increase in AgNORs dots in nuclei of epithelial cells of prostates of BPA treated animals when compared to control.
Ultrastructrual study of group I revealed that in control subgroups, the basement membrane of prostatic acini was surrounded by a single layer of fibroblasts that separate the basement membrane from SM cell layer. On the other hand in neonates of BPA treated animals, this cell layer was transformed into several layers of fibroblasts which physically separated the SM cell layer from the epithelium. In addition a significant amount of collagen fibers could be seen in between the fibroblasts of this zone.
Ultrastructural study of group III revealed presence of prostatic epithelial hyperplasia, while in group IV the cellular changes which accompany presence of PIN lesions were noticed.