Unit of Toxicology Sciences, Swetox, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Karolinska Institutet, Södertälje, Sweden.
Basic Clin Pharmacol Toxicol. 2018 Jan;122(1):38-45. doi: 10.1111/bcpt.12878. Epub 2017 Sep 14.
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are man-made chemicals that interfere with hormonal signalling pathways. They are used in, for example, production of common household materials, in resin-based medical supplies and in pesticides. Thus, they are environmentally ubiquitous and human beings and wildlife are exposed to them on a daily basis. Early-life exposure to EDCs has been associated with later-life adversities such as obesity, diabetes and cancer. Mechanisms underlying such associations are unknown but are likely to be mediated by epigenetic changes induced by EDCs. Epigenetics is the study of changes in gene function that are heritable but do not entail a change in DNA sequence. EDCs have been shown to affect epigenetic marks such as DNA methylation and histone modifications. The scope of this article was to review today's knowledge about mechanisms involved in EDC-induced epigenetic changes and to discuss how this knowledge could be used for designing novel methods addressing epigenetic effects of EDCs.
内分泌干扰化学物质(EDCs)是人为制造的化学物质,它们会干扰激素信号通路。这些化学物质被广泛应用于各种领域,例如生产常见的家居材料、树脂基医疗用品和杀虫剂等。因此,EDCs 无处不在,人类和野生动物每天都会接触到它们。早期接触 EDC 与后期的肥胖、糖尿病和癌症等不良后果有关。虽然我们尚不清楚这些关联的机制,但它们可能是由 EDC 引起的表观遗传变化所介导的。表观遗传学是研究基因功能可遗传但不涉及 DNA 序列改变的变化。研究表明,EDCs 会影响表观遗传标记,如 DNA 甲基化和组蛋白修饰。本文旨在综述目前关于 EDC 诱导的表观遗传变化机制的知识,并讨论如何利用这些知识来设计新的方法来解决 EDC 的表观遗传效应。