Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals and Their Adverse Effects on the Endoplasmic Reticulum

Abstract

There is growing concern regarding the health and safety issues of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Long-term exposure to EDCs has serious adverse health effects through both hormone-direct and hormone-indirect ways. Accordingly, some EDCs can be a pathogen and an inducer to the susceptibility of disease, even if they have a very low affinity on the estrogen receptor, or no estrogenic effect. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress recently attracted attention in this research area. Because ER and ER stress could be key regulators of the EDC's adverse effects, such as the malfunction of the organ, as well as the death, apoptosis, and proliferation of a cell. In this review, we focused on finding evidence which shows that EDCs could be a trigger for ER stress and provide specific examples of EDCs, which are known to cause ER stress currently.

Keywords: endocrine system; endocrine-disrupting chemical; endoplasmic reticulum; unfolded protein response.

Figure 1

ER stress regulating genes. (A) Schematic flow of the transmembrane UPR alarming genes and the process of how they react upon UPR is shown. Upon sensing UPR, BiP leaves, and transmembrane protein phosphorylates and oligomerizes. Then they go through the adaptation process. (B) After the BiP leaves the transmembrane proteins, such as Ire1α, it then oligomerizes on the nucleus side of carboxy terminus, and XBP1 mRNA is activated.