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Although it has been recognized for decades that hormonally-active substances, including estrogenic pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, pesticides, fungicides, plasticizers and phytoestrogens, exert potentially deleterious effects upon biological systems, the notion of endocrine disruption as a scientific discipline has emerged only recently. Observations that female offspring of pregnant women taking diethylstilbestrol (DES) grew up to develop rare vaginal-cervical cancers and other reproductive tract abnormalities were among the first to show a causal linkage between early developmental exposures to exogenous estrogens and the latent development of disease and/or dysfunction (reviewed in (1)). These studies were extremely important because they launched basic research, clinical investigation, and epidemiological studies into an understanding of the "fetal basis of adult disease" (2). Since then, the field of endocrine disruption has blossomed. Current research in the area includes how developmental exposures to hormone-disrupting chemicals, drugs, and environmental contaminants cause both immediate as well as latent effects on endocrine and reproductive systems.
It should be clear that endocrine disruption falls well into the purview of endocrinology. Surprisingly, for the most part (and with notable exceptions) endocrinologists have not embraced this area (3). Nevertheless, the endocrine approach is crucial for appreciating the nuances of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). For example, traditional dose-response biology does not usually apply to effects of EDCs in animals and humans. Rather than linear dose-response curves, EDCs more often exert non-linear, sometimes U- or inverted U-shaped dose-response curves (4). Furthermore, there may be no "lowest observed adverse effect level", or LOAEL, of an environmental chemical in circumstances when any exposure is enough to exert a detectable effect (5). Because endocrine systems are complex, often involving a hormone, its receptor, co-regulatory factors, transcription elements, various target genes, enzymes involved in hormone biosynthesis and metabolism, and other endpoints, the ability to assess effects of EDCs is complex. Finally, EDC exposures usually happen in mixtures, as a contaminated area is rarely affected by a single contaminant. Again, endocrinologists are well-suited to make these kinds of judgments; we are familiar with the idiosyncrasies and complexity of hormonally-sensitive systems.
As the Associate Editor of the Endocrinology section of Experimental Biology and Medicine, I extend an invitation to researchers in the field of endocrine disruption to submit your best articles to the journal. This discipline needs a journal "home." Currently, most endocrine disruption research is published in very specific toxicology journals. Although these publications are certainly important, they reach a relatively narrow audience. Further, the toxicological approach may be informative of certain aspects of EDCs (e.g., toxic effects of EDCs and the mechanisms of toxicity), but the endocrine approach is more applicable to low-level, biologically- and ecologically-relevant exposures to EDCs, which generally occur in subtle and not overtly toxic manners. As a multi- and interdisciplinary journal, Experimental Biology and Medicine comprises reports not only in endocrinology, but also toxicology, molecular biology, biochemistry, translational research, and many others. Endocrinologists have the expertise and the responsibility to take ownership of endocrine disruption. Experimental Biology and Medicine is the perfect venue for ensuring that top-notch research in endocrine disruption reaches a broad audience of experts.
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