Transplacental effect of diethylstilbestrol in female rats

The effect of diethylstilbestrol propionate (DES; 1 mg/kg body wt. was studied in the female offspring of rats exposed subcutaneously on the 19th day of gestation. Examination of vaginal smears showed persistent estrus in adult rats treated prenatally with DES. Compensatory ovarian hypertrophy (COH) induced by hemicastration of these rats was not suppressed by estrogens. A per oral test for glucose-tolerance revealed decreased utilization of glucose in the offspring of DES-treated rats. Preliminary observations demonstrated that tumors developed in 14 of 18 (77.8%) progeny transplacentally expoed to DES and in 9 of 34 (26.5%) intact control rats. Tumors of the ovary and the endometrium were found only in the rats treated prenatally with DES; no tumors of the uterine cervix or vagina were observed in either experimental or control groups. It is suggested that a transplacental effect of DES in the female is impairment of the sex differentiation of the hypothalamus. The resulting hormonal and metabolic shifts might promote tumorigenesis.