Abstract
Early life stress (ELS) is the extreme mental or physical stresses in early life stages. Recently, we have focused on ELS as environmental factor involved in a health hazard for male reproductive system in children. Neonatal maternal separation model and corticosterone administration model are used to evaluate the effects of ELS on male reproductive system. As a result, it is showed that the exposure to ELS and following excessive secretion of corticosterone are related to decreased number of Sertoli cells through upregulation of p27, the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor. Moreover, the decrease of Sertoli cell number was not recovered in postpuberty and it may be involved in long-lasting damages on male reproductive system, including the decrease of spermatozoa count.
