African Reed Frog and Breast Cancer Treatment

I hope everyone enjoyed today's class. Matthew said his favorite part was seeing the frog tongue.

Male (left) and female (right), African reedfrog, Hyperolius argus; one of only five species of frogs in which males and females do not share the same coloring.

Photo courtesy of Dr. Tyrone Hayes

I promised I would send a link about the African Reed Frog. The female frog has coloration and spots and the male is plain green in color. Researchers have found that injecting male frogs at a certain stage in development with estrogen (a female hormone) will cause the male frogs to have the same coloration as the female. Too much estrogen in human females can cause cancer. Cancer blockers have been introduced that reduce the risk of cancer. When these same blockers are injected into the male frogs along with the estrogen, the degree of coloration is very slight. Researcher believe that African Reed Frogs can be use to test blockers more easily than previous methods.