Welcome
to the Web site for the
Department of Pharmacologyand Therapeutics
at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
This site contains information about our Graduate
program, seminars given within the Department, as
well as a listing of staff and students and links to
various scientific resources.
PLEASE NOTE: Our department conducts and teaches basic scientific research.
If you want to become a pharmacist please contact the Faculté de pharmacie of l'Université de Montréal.
Congratulations to Bernard Robaire and Barbara Hales
We are thrilled to announce that our Department will play a major role in the only two new CIHR team grants awarded in Canada by the Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health on “Environmental and Reproductive Health”. One, based at McGill and headed by B. Robaire, will focus on the impact of exposure to phthalates, their metabolites and “green” plasticizers on male reproductive health. The other, led by Cindy Goodyer and B. Hales and based at the RI-MUHC, will investigate the effects of brominated flame retardants on development and reproduction.
These research programs represent collaborations between developmental and reproductive toxicologists, pediatricians, urologists, obstetricians and gynecologists, molecular biologists, epidemiologists, chemical engineers, ethicists, and legal scholars from McGill, MUHC, Laval University, Dalhousie University, University of Western Ontario, the Sick Kids Hospital, University of Toronto, and Health Canada. Click here for more info.
Pharmacology Majors and
Honors Program
began its first term in September, 2009
Cristian O'Flaherty,
most recent associate member of our department, has received his first CIHR
operating grant, as well as a CSR Seed Grant from the McGill Centre for the Study of
Reproduction.
Jérôme Fortin,
a PhD student in Dan Bernard's lab, was awarded a Banting and Best Master’s Scholarship
from the CIHR. He was also awarded a Presidential Poster Competition Award
for his recent presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Endocrine Society.
Tina Scardochio, Tamara Glavinovic and Jennifer Wright,
students in Paul Clarke's lab, were all awarded Bourses de Maîtrise en
Recherche by the Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies
(FQRNT).
Impact of the
chemotherapy cocktail used to treat testicular cancer on the gene expression
profile of germ cells from male Brown-Norway rats.
Geraldine Delbès, Donovan Chan, Pirjo Pakarinen, Jacquetta M. Trasler,
Barbara F. Hales and Bernard Robaire Biology of Reproduction (2009) Feb;80(2):320-7.
Advances in treatment for testicular cancer that include the coadministration of bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin (BEP) have brought the cure rate to higher than 90%. Our laboratory established an animal model mimicking the human BEP treatment to investigate its impact on male fertility and gamete quality. We have previously shown that this chemotherapy cocktail negatively affect male reproductive organ functions as well as sperm chromatin quality.
In this study, we elucidated the impact of BEP treatment on gene expression in male germ cells. Brown-Norway rats were treated for 9 wk with vehicle (0X) or BEP at doses equivalent to 0.3X and 0.6X the human dose. At the end of treatment, spermatogenesis was affected, showing altered histology and a decreased sperm count; spermatozoa had a higher number of DNA breaks. After 9 wk of treatment, round spermatids were isolated, and RNA was extracted and probed on Rat230-2.0 Affymetrix arrays. Of the 31 099 probe sets present on the array, 59% were expressed in control round spermatids. BEP treatment significantly altered the expression of 221 probe sets, with at least a 1.5-fold change compared with controls; 80% were upregulated. We observed a dose-dependent increase in the expression of oxidative stress response genes and no change in the expression of genes involved in DNA repair. BEP upregulated genes were implicated in pathways related to Jun and Junb protooncogenes. Increased mRNA levels of Jun and Junb were confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR; furthermore, JUN protein was increased in elongating spermatids. Thus, BEP exposure triggers an oxidative stress response in round spermatids and induces many pathways that may lead to the survival of damaged cells and production of abnormal sperm.
