Trace amounts of dioxin were present in Agent Orange, a de

Chapter 0, Problem 14

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Trace amounts of dioxin were present in Agent Orange, a de foliant sprayed on vegetation during the Vietnam War. Animal tests suggest that dioxin can cause birth defects, cancer, liver and thymus damage, and immune system suppression, some times leading to death. But the animal tests are equivocal; a hamster is not affected by a dose that can kill a guinea pig. Dioxin acts somewhat like a steroid hormone, entering a cell and binding to a receptor protein that then attaches to the cell's DNA. How might this mechanism help explain the vari ety of dioxin's effects on different body systems and in different animals? How might you determine whether a type of illness is related to dioxin exposure? How might you deter mine whether a particular individual became ill as a result of exposure to dioxin? Which would be more difficult to demonstrate? Why?