Long term consequences of in utero endocrine disruptors exposure on male offspring development

Abstract

Early life events have long lasting impacts on tissue structure and function. It is accepted that there is an association between environmental challenge during pregnancy and later pathophysiology, a concept that has been named ‘developmental programming’ The environmental adversity acts on specific tissues of the foetus during sensitive periods in its development to change developmental trajectories and thus their organisation and function. During the prenatal period, gonadal steroid hormones (i.e. oestrogens and androgens) organise the developing brain by changing the architecture of several neural substrates which later in puberty are activated by the gonadal steroids surge in a directed manner. Endocrine disruptors may distort or shift the organism´s normal patterns of response to environmental or internal conditions and if present during the gestational period, severe morphological and functional impairments have been observed in the offpring. In this mini-review we will summarize the literature available on endocrine disruptors (ED) exposure during pregnancy and the influence on the outcome of the male offspring. Additionally, the effects of the non-steroidal ED flutamide will be discussed in view of the simmilarities detected with the prenatal stress effects observed on male offspring.