Environmental pollutants: an immunoendocrine perspective on phthalates

Phthalates are endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) used as plasticizers in a wide array of daily-use products, from flooring and automotive parts to medical devices and are even present in the children´s toys. Since these compounds are not covalently bound other molecules, they leach from these synthetic products, causing a high level of human exposure to them. EDCs exert several endocrine effects, most typically, reduced biosynthesis of the male hormone, testosterone and disturbances in estrogen, androgen, PPAR-gamma and AhR that control complex immunoendocrine regulatory networks. Besides impacting the developmental processes and long-term adverse effects, since cells of the immune system express endocrine receptors, and synthetize and respond to several hormones and other endocrine ligands, phthalates also cause dysregulation of immune system.