Interference of xenoestrogen o,p'-DDT on the action of endogenous estrogens at environmentally realistic concentrations.

Estrogenic effects of individual chemicals and mixtures of 17β-estradiol (E2) and o,p'-DDT were examined using pS2 and PR gene expressions in MCF-7 cells. Interactions between E2 and o,p'-DDT were evaluated by a statistical method based on factorial design. At levels close to environmentally realistic concentrations, no significant interactions between E2 and o,p'-DDT were observed, suggesting that the xenoestrogen (o,p'-DDT) could act in an additive way with the endogenous estrogen (E2). These results demonstrated the utility of this statistical method in a mixture study, and highlight the potential interference and health risk of low-level xenoestrogens, such as o,p'-DDT.