Abstract
A growing body of evidence demonstrates that adverse events early in development, and particularly during intrauterine life, may program risks for diseases in adult life. Increasing evidence has been accumulated indicating the important role of epigenetic regulation including DNA methylation, histone modifications and miRNAs in developmental programming. Among the environmental factors which play an important role in programming of chronic pathologies, the endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that have estrogenic, anti-estrogenic, and anti-androgenic activity are of specific concern because the developing organism is extremely sensitive to perturbation by substances with hormone-like activity. Among EDCs, there are many substances that are constantly present in the modern human environment or are in widespread use, including dioxin and dioxin-like compounds, phthalates, agricultural pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, industrial solvents, pharmaceuticals, and heavy metals. Apart from their common endocrine active properties, several EDCs have been shown to disrupt developmental epigenomic programming. The purpose of this review is to provide a summary of recent research findings which indicate that exposure to EDCs during in-utero and/or neonatal development can cause long-term health outcomes via mechanisms of epigenetic memory.
Highlights
A growing body of evidence demonstrates that adverse events early in development, and during intrauterine life, may program risks for diseases in adult life
There are many substances that are constantly present in the modern human environment or are in widespread use, including dioxin and dioxin-like compounds, phthalates, agricultural pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, industrial solvents, pharmaceuticals, and heavy metals [37]
The plausible link between endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) exposure during critical periods of early development and risk of chronic diseases later in life has been reported in a number of recent studies
Summary
A growing body of evidence demonstrates that adverse events early in development, and during intrauterine life, may program risks for diseases in adult life. Among EDCs, there are many substances that are constantly present in the modern human environment or are in widespread use, including dioxin and dioxin-like compounds, phthalates, agricultural pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, industrial solvents, pharmaceuticals, and heavy metals Apart from their common endocrine active properties, several EDCs have been shown to disrupt developmental epigenomic programming. There are many substances that are constantly present in the modern human environment or are in widespread use, including dioxin and dioxin-like compounds, phthalates (plastic-softening chemicals), agricultural pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, industrial solvents, pharmaceuticals, and heavy metals [37]. The purpose of this review is to provide a summary of recent research findings which indicate that exposure to EDCs during fetal and/or early postnatal development can cause long-term health outcomes via mechanisms of epigenetic memory
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