EDC-MixRisk – Safe chemicals for future generations

PhD student Iuliia Savchuk, who is involved in the EDC-MixRisk project, defended her thesis 13 October 2017 in Astrid Lindgren´s Children Hospital, Stockholm.

The title of her thesis is “Diverse effects of endocrine-disruptive chemicals on Leydig and adrenocortical cell steroidogenesis in humans and rodents”. The aim of the thesis was to examine the impact of selected endocrine-disruptive chemicals (EDCs) on hormonal function of steroidogenic cells from mice and human.

EDCs have the potential to interrupt a normal steroidogenesis and thus result in harmful effects on reproductive health of humans and other organisms. Several previous studies have demonstrated a considerable decrease in fertility biomarkers such as sperm counts, and increase in malformations and undermasculinization of the male reproductive tract of mammals including humans.

The results of this PhD study indicated that environmental endocrine disruptive chemicals have diverse effect on androgen production in steroidogenic cells in rodents and humans. Bisphenol A and MEHP should be taken into consideration as possible causes of premature maturation in boys. Also, based on the results, it is recommended that pregnant women at an early gestational stage should try to avoid taking resveratrol due its ability to suppress steroidogenesis in the human fetal adrenals.

Reference information for the published papers:

1. Savchuk I, Söder O, Svechnikov K (2013) Mouse Leydig cells with different androgen production potential are resistant to estrogenic stimuli but responsive to bisphenol A which attenuates testosterone metabolism. PLOS ONE 8 (8): e71722
2. Savchuk I, Söder O, Svechnikov K (2015) Mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate stimulates androgen production but suppresses mitochondrial function in mouse Leydig cells with different steroidogenic potenti Toxicol. Sciences 145 (1): 149-156.
3. Savchuk I, Morvan M.-L, Søeborg T, Antignac J.-P, Gemzell-Danielsson K, Le Bizec B, Söder O, Svechnikov K (2017). Resveratrol inhibits steroidogenesis in human fetal adrenocortical cells at the end of first trimester. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research 61(2) DOI 10.1002/mnfr.201600522*.
4. Savchuk I, Morvan ML, Antignac JP, Gemzell-Danielsson K, Le Bizec B, Söder O, Svechnikov K (2017) Androgenic potential of human fetal adrenals at the end of the first trimester. Endocr Connect. 6 (6): 348-359 doi: 10.1530/EC-17-0085.