Pesticide exposure: the hormonal function of the female reproductive system disrupted?
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BioMed Central
Open Access
Review
Pesticide exposure: the hormonal function of the female reproductive system disrupted? Reini W Bretveld1, Chris MG Thomas2, Paul TJ Scheepers1, Gerhard A Zielhuis1 and Nel Roeleveld*1 Address: 1Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, P.O. Box 9101, 6500 HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands and 2Chemical Endocrinology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, P.O. Box 9101, 6500 HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Email: Reini W Bretveld - [email protected]; Chris MG Thomas - [email protected]; Paul TJ Scheepers - [email protected]; Gerhard A Zielhuis - [email protected]; Nel Roeleveld* - [email protected] * Corresponding author
Published: 31 May 2006 Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology 2006, 4:30
doi:10.1186/1477-7827-4-30
Received: 22 December 2005 Accepted: 31 May 2006
This article is available from: http://www.rbej.com/content/4/1/30 © 2006 Bretveld et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract Some pesticides may interfere with the female hormonal function, which may lead to negative effects on the reproductive system through disruption of the hormonal balance necessary for proper functioning. Previous studies primarily focused on interference with the estrogen and/or androgen receptor, but the hormonal function may be disrupted in many more ways through pesticide exposure. The aim of this review is to give an overview of the various ways in which pesticides may disrupt the hormonal function of the female reproductive system and in particular the ovarian cycle. Disruption can occur in all stages of hormonal regulation: 1. hormone synthesis; 2. hormone release and storage; 3. hormone transport and clearance; 4. hormone receptor recognition and binding; 5. hormone postreceptor activation; 6. the thyroid function; and 7. the central nervous system. These mechanisms are described for effects of pesticide exposure in vitro and on experimental animals in vivo. For the latter, potential effects of endocrine disrupting pesticides on the female reproductive system, i.e. modulation of hormone concentrations, ovarian cycle irregularities, and impaired fertility, are also reviewed. In epidemiological studies, exposure to pesticides has been associated with menstrual cycle disturbances, reduced fertility, prolonged time-to-pregnancy, spontaneous abortion, stillbirths, and developmental defects, which may or may not be due to disruption of the female hormonal function. Because pesticides comprise a large number of distinct substances with dissimilar structures and diverse toxicity, it is most likely that several of the above-mentioned mechanisms are involved in the pathophysiological pathways explaining the role of pesticide exposure in ovarian c
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