Organotin Compounds Suppress Testosterone Production in Leydig Cells from Neonatal Pig Testes

Abstract

The in vitro effects of exposure to tributyltin chloride (TBT), dibutyltin dichloride (DBT), and triphenyltin chloride (TPT) on testosterone production in isolated Leydig cells from neonatal pig testes were examined. These organotin compounds strongly suppressed human chorionic gonadotropin (10 IU/ml) or 8-bromocAMP (0.1 mM) induced testosterone production when the cells were exposed to nontoxic concentrations. The suppression of testosterone production was dose-dependent over the concentration range of 0.03-0.3 M for TBT and DBT, and 0.01-0.3 M for TPT. These effective concentrations for the suppression of testosterone production were lower than that of the cytotoxic concentrations of the organotin compounds in Leydig cells and were equivalent to the accumulated concentration levels that were previously reported in marine organisms.

Sex-dependent aromatase activity in rat offspring after pre- and postnatal exposure to triphenyltin chloride

“…Furthermore, it has been reported that OTCs enhance histone acetyltransferase activity in rat liver nuclear extracts (Osada et al, 2005) and that they suppress testosterone synthesis via decreased expression of steroidogenic enzymes (Doering et al, 2002;Lo et al, 2003;Nakajima et al, 2003;Ohno et al, 2005;Reddy et al, 2006;Kim et al, 2008). The latter mechanism might have accounted for the decrease in testosterone concentration and the delay in the onset of puberty in male rats observed in the previously reported part of the study (Grote et al, 2009).…”

Leydig cells from neonatal pig testis abundantly express 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11β-HSD) type 2 and effectively inactivate cortisol to cortisone

“…All reagents used for pig Leydig cell preparation and culture were as described previously [20,21]. All other reagents were of the highest commercially available grade.…”

“…The details of the preparation procedure of Leydig cells from neonatal pig testes have been described previously [20]. Leydig cells were obtained by collagenase-dispase digestion of testes followed by Percoll ® density centrifugation of the cell suspension.…”

A microcalorimetric assay of tetrahymena thermophila for assessing tributyltin acute toxicity

“…It was also surprisingly found that LDH activity recovered to the control level when exposed to 25 mg L -1 TBT. The cytotoxic effects of TBT on Leydig cells also showed no significant change in LDH activity at 3 mM TBT [23]. No significant change was also found in CAT and GST.…”