부산대학교 도서관

As a consequence of ongoing environmental pollution, the already long list of environmental agents and toxins that can affect endocrine systems has required many updates during the past 20 years. In addition to chemicals such as the nematocide dibromochloropropane, related compounds and heavy metals, the environmental toxin dichlorodiphenyltrichlorethane (DDT) has been identified as a major damaging factor of the male reproductive tract. Intriguingly, in addition to its well-known estrogenic effects, the capacity of DDT to potently inhibit androgen binding to the androgen receptor and androgen-induced transcriptional activity has only recently been discovered (1) and highlighted (2). In view of the apparent decline in semen quality during the last decades (3, 4), these observations have stimulated considerable debate and concern. Yet another clinical problem frequently encountered by endocrinologists are patients referred by their physicians for evaluation of otherwise unexplained gynecomastia. Although environmental causes such as diets rich in estrogens have been