AN ALTERNATIVE MODE OF ACTION OF ENDOCRINE-DISRUPTING CHEMICALS AND CHEMOPREVENTION

Abstract

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) produce a wide variety of endocrine-disruption effects, including developmental disorders, carcinogenicity, and mutagenicity. Our recent study demonstrated that about 94% of the 48 EDCs classified by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) generated free radicals and that this free radical generation induced by EDCs might represent a common toxic mechanism of action of EDCs. The chemoprevention of endocrine-disrupting effects, such as employed in the control of caner by interfering with common toxic mechanisms of action of EDCs, represents a promising approach to this problem. In this context, it is proposed that EDCs may produce endocrine-disrupting effects including carcinogenicity via the generation of free radicals, and thus the effects may be modulated or prevented by scavenging free radicals with antioxidants, such as vitamins, curcumin, isoflavonoids, resveratrol, and plant polysaccharides. Here, an alternative mode of action of EDCs and their possible chemoprevention are proposed.

This work was supported by the Brain Korea 21 project in 2003.