Abstract
Phthalates and bisphenol A, classified as endocrine disruptors, have weak estrogenic, anti-androgenic properties, and affect thyroid hormone regulation. The aim of this study on male rats was to compare the subacute toxic effects of low doses of single compounds (bis (2 –ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), and bisphenol A (BPA)) with the effects of their mixture through different biochemical, hormonal, and hematological parameters. Rats were divided into five experimental groups: Control (corn oil), DEHP (50 mg/kg b.w./day), DBP (50 mg/kg b.w./day), BPA (25 mg/kg b.w./day), and MIX (50 mg/kg b.w./day DEHP + 50 mg/kg b.w/day DBP + 25 mg/kg b.w./day BPA). Animals were sacrificed after 28 days of oral treatment and blood was collected for further analysis. The results demonstrated that the mixture produced significant changes in lipid profile, liver-related biochemical parameters, and glucose level. Furthermore, the opposite effects of single substances on the thyroxine level have been shown in comparison with the mixture, as well as a more pronounced effect of the mixture on testosterone level. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on the toxicology of mixtures and gives one more evidence of the paramount importance of mixture toxicity studies, especially in assessing the endocrine disruptive effects of chemicals.
Highlights
In real-life scenarios, the general population experiences uncontrolled multi-chemicals low-dose exposure from many different sources [1,2,3,4,5]
Body weight gain was significantly lower in all the treated groups compared to the control in all presented time points, with the exception of the DEHP group
During critical windows of development, in utero exposure to BPA, DEHP, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) can lead to obesity later in life, through various mechanisms, such as disturbances of the methylation process and changes in the histone structure which affect gene expression in the case of phthalates [58] and alteration of energy and amino-acid metabolism in the case of BPA [59]
Summary
In real-life scenarios, the general population experiences uncontrolled multi-chemicals low-dose exposure from many different sources [1,2,3,4,5]. Epidemiological and biomonitoring studies have shown that exposure to chemical mixtures is associated with various adverse health effects as a consequence of different types of toxicity, such as neurotoxicity, cardiotoxicity, hematotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, Int. J. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 746; doi:10.3390/ijerph17030746 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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