Environmental signaling: What embryos and evolution teach us about endocrine disrupting chemicals. Endocrine Rev

The term “endocrine disrupting chemicals ” is commonly used to describe environmental agents that alter the endocrine system. Lab-oratories working in this emerging field—environmental endocrine research—have looked at chemicals that mimic or block endogenous vertebrate steroid hormones by interacting with the hormone’s re-ceptor. Environmental chemicals known to do this do so most often with receptors derived from the steroid/thyroid/retinoid gene family. They include ubiquitous and persistent organochlorines, as well as plas-ticizers, pharmaceuticals, and natural hormones. These chemicals function as estrogens, antiestrogens, and antiandrogens but have few, if any, structural similarities. Therefore, receptor-based or functional assays have the best chance of detecting putative biological activity of environmental chemicals. Three nuclear estrogen recepto