The offspring sex ratios of male mammals treated with dioxin before mating: comment on the paper of Ishihara et al.

摘要

Ishihara et al. [1] confirmed their own finding that male mice treated with 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), when mated with untreated females, sire litters with a decreased sex ratio (proportion male) [2]. Similar reports have been made in respect of man [3-5], the guinea pig [6] and (in a two-generation study) the rat [7]. Indeed, I had predicted such a phenomenon (on the basis of the reported anti-androgenic properties of dioxin) before any of these reports appeared [8]. Ishihara et al. [1 ] further found that the litters sired by their treated male mice were not of decreased size as contrasted with those of controls (thus ruling out the potential explanation of sex-selective abortion or resorption).