- Full (HTML) - Full (PDF) - Related EHP Articles - PubMed:Related Articles - PubMed:Citation - Cited in PMC - Purchase This Issue

Ulrike Schulte-Oehlmann,¹ Triantafyllos Albanis,² Axel Allera,³ Jean Bachmann,¹ Pia Berntsson,⁴ Nicola Beresford,⁵ Daniela Candia Carnevali,⁶ Francesca Ciceri,⁶ Thierry Dagnac,⁷ Jerzy Falandysz,⁸ Silvana Galassi,⁶ David Hala,⁵ Gemma Janer,⁹ Roger Jeannot,⁷ Susan Jobling,⁵ Isabella King,³ Dietrich Klingmüller,³ Werner Kloas,¹⁰ Kresten Ole Kusk,¹¹ Ramon Levada,⁹ Susan Lo,³ Ilka Lutz,¹⁰ Jörg Oehlmann,¹ Stina Oredsson,⁴ Cinta Porte,⁹ Marian Rand-Weaver,⁵ Vasilis Sakkas,² Michela Sugni,⁶ Charles Tyler,¹² Ronny van Aerle,¹² Christoph van Ballegoy,¹⁰ and Leah Wollenberger¹¹

¹Department of Ecology and Evolution, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; ²Laboratory of Industrial Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece; ³Institute for Clinical Biochemistry, Department of Endocrinology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany; ⁴Department of Cell and Organism Biology, University of Lund, Lund, Sweden; ⁵Department of Biology and Biochemistry, Brunel University, Uxbridge, United Kingdom; ⁶Section of Zoology and Cytology, Department of Biology “Luigi Gorini,” University of Milan, Milan, Italy; ⁷Analysis and Mineral Characterization, Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières, Orleans, France; ⁸Department of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland; ⁹Department of Environmental Chemistry, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Barcelona, Spain; ¹⁰Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany; ¹¹Institute of Environment and Resources, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark; ¹²Environmental and Molecular Fish Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom

Abstract
Tens of thousands of man-made chemicals are in regular use and discharged into the environment. Many of them are known to interfere with the hormonal systems in humans and wildlife. Given the complexity of endocrine systems, there are many ways in which endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can affect the body’s signaling system, and this makes unraveling the mechanisms of action of these chemicals difficult. A major concern is that some of these EDCs appear to be biologically active at extremely low concentrations. There is growing evidence to indicate that the guiding principle of traditional toxicology that “the dose makes the poison” may not always be the case because some EDCs do not induce the classical dose-response relationships. The European Union project COMPRENDO (Comparative Research on Endocrine Disrupters--Phylogenetic Approach and Common Principles focussing on Androgenic/Antiandrogenic Compounds) therefore aims to develop an understanding of potential health problems posed by androgenic and antiandrogenic compounds (AACs) to wildlife and humans by focusing on the commonalities and differences in responses to AACs across the animal kingdom (from invertebrates to vertebrates) . Key words: androgens, antiandrogens, endocrine disruptor, environmental health, molecular screening, phylogenetic approach, wildlife exposure. Environ Health Perspect 114(suppl 1) :98-100 (2006) . doi:10.1289/ehp.8060 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 30 March 2006]

This article is part of the monograph “The Ecological Relevance of Chemically Induced Endocrine Disruption in Wildlife.”

Address correspondence to U. Schulte-Oehlmann, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Department of Ecology and Evolution, Siesmayerstr. 70, D-60054 Frankfurt, Germany. Telephone: 49 69 798 24850. Fax: 49 69 798 24748. E-mail: Schulte-oehlmann@zoology.uni-frankfurt.de

This project is funded by the European Union (COMPRENDO Project, contract EVK1-CT-2002-00129) .

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 31 January 2005 ; accepted 16 March 2006.

The full version of this article is available for free in HTML or PDF formats.