The ordinary ecological chemicals which are used to make plastic are blamed to cause testicular cancer, according to researchers. Testicular cancer occurs in young men but from some years doctors have identified that due to unusual changes which escort to testicular cancer happen in the initial months of in which foetus is growing.
Because these changes happen during early pregnancy and that time there is no mean to study foetal testes, doctors do not how and why these changes happen. Researchers are quiet sure that there must be ecological reason due to which rate of cancer has increased so quickly.
One hypothesis is that alterations are caused because pregnant women are exposed to ecological chemicals like phthalates that are used in many household items including packaging and furniture, said Professor Richard Sharpe, of the Medical Research Council. The study was now possible because now MRC researchers had made model in which early human foetal testis development can be studied.
The development can be influenced tentatively to introduce once and for all if revelation to ecological chemicals is a likely offender. They will use mice harbor human cells to test the theory. Team led by Prof. Sharpe has grafted testis tissue from aborted foetuses under the skin of mice.
The microbe cells in the testes are at the crucial stage when any errors in their growth can result in alterations that make them pre-cancerous. They will expose mice to phthalates or other environmental chemicals to see if this induces changes in the foetal germ cells that would incline them to grow into a cancer.
Phthalates are used to build plastic bendable and can be found in carpets, wall boards, car upholstery and fittings and certain cosmetics and pharmaceutical drugs. However, Prof Sharpe said that there was ambiguity about whether phthalate effects on the foetus in animal models were relevant to humans. This is one of the crucial unresolved questions as to if phthalates cause a risk to human health or not.