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Perfluoroalkyl Substance Toxicity from Early-Life Exposure
Published in David M. Kempisty, Yun Xing, LeeAnn Racz, Perfluoroalkyl Substances in the Environment, 2018
Childhood obesity is a major public health problem in the United States, where 17% of children are obese and another 15% are overweight (Ogden et al. 2014). Excess adiposity is difficult to reverse once established and increases the risk of cardiometabolic, pulmonary, and musculoskeletal disorders (Ebbeling et al. 2002). Although controversial, there is growing evidence that prenatal exposure to obesogens, chemicals that disrupt lipid metabolism, may play a role in childhood obesity risk by perturbing biological pathways involved in energy metabolism, appetite, or adipogenesis (Janesick and Blumberg 2012). PFAS are suspected obesogens (Alexander et al. 2008; Buck et al. 2011; White et al. 2011). Rodent and in vitro studies show that PFAS exposure may cause impaired glucose homeostasis, increased body weight, and altered adipocyte differentiation (Vanden Heuvel et al. 2006; Hines et al. 2009; Taxvig et al. 2012; Bastos Sales et al. 2013), although some studies suggest otherwise (Ngo et al. 2014).
Hazardous Chemical Substances
Published in Barry L. Johnson, Maureen Y. Lichtveld, Environmental Policy and Public Health, 2017
Barry L. Johnson, Maureen Y. Lichtveld
“In a 2006 review, Blumberg and UC Irvine colleague Felix Grün coined a new term for such environmental chemicals linked with fat gain: obesogens. Although Blumberg’s work was not the first to implicate such substances in obesity, the term obesogen defined an emerging line of inquiry that questioned the strict calories-in-calories-out dogma of weight regulation” [55]. In laboratory studies other researchers have identified several compounds that can reasonably be called obesogents. These include TBT, organobromines, organochlorines (e.g., DDT, PCBs), OPs, BPA, phthalates, heavy metals (e.g., Pb, Cd, As), and perfluorooctanoic acid” [55].
The effects of heat exposure on tropical farm workers in Malaysia: six-month physiological health monitoring
Published in International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 2023
Vivien How, Shyamli Singh, Thinh Dang, Lim Fang Lee, How-Ran Guo
Even though agroecological farming has long been regarded as a sustainable, healthy, and lush way of life, and conventional farming as physically demanding, stressful, and dangerous work, this study found that conventional farmers have a significantly higher BMI than agroecological farmers during the six-month monitoring. This finding is consistent with a previous study suggesting that farmers who use pesticides predispose themselves to weight gain by disrupting metabolic homeostasis (Hunsucker 2016). Due to the pesticide’s potential obesogenic properties, it may accumulate in human fat tissue causing endocrine disruption and increasing susceptibility to metabolic disorders (Egusquiza and Blumberg 2020). In this context, conventional farmers are at risk of obesity-induced physiological changes that alter their body mechanics, impair cardiopulmonary function and impair their work productivity (Kudel et al. 2018).
The obesogen tributyltin induces features of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS): a review
Published in Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B, 2018
Eduardo Merlo, Ian V. Silva, Rodolfo C. Cardoso, Jones B. Graceli
Tributyltin was found to promote elevated fat accumulation and obesity (Grün and Blumberg 2006; Janesick and Blumberg 2011). Obesogens, such as TBT, are known to induce obesity by increasing the number of fat cells (and fat storage into existing fat cells), changing the number of calories burned at rest, altering energy balance to favor storage of calories, and altering the mechanisms through which the body regulates appetite and satiety (Grün and Blumberg 2006; Janesick and Blumberg 2011). Thus, obesogens display the potential to disrupt multiple metabolic signaling pathways in the developing organism that might result in permanent changes in adult physiology (Grün and Blumberg 2006; Janesick and Blumberg 2012). Many of the TBT-initiated obesogenic effects (1–100 nM dose) are mediated through PPAR-γ, which acts as a key regulator of adipocyte differentiation and as a transcriptional regulator and/or effector of target genes, such as C/EBP (CCAAT/enhancer binding proteins), AFABP (adipocyte-specific fatty acid-binding protein), and FATP (fatty acid transport protein) (Carfi’ et al. 2008; Grün and Blumberg 2006). PPAR-γ is a member of the PPAR subfamily of nuclear hormone receptors expressed mainly in adipose and hepatic tissue. In addition to its role in the formation of new fat cells during early development, PPAR-γ modulates the function of adipocytes during adult life (Rosen et al. 2000) and is a critical gene involved in development of obesity in humans and rodents (Evans, Barish, and Wang 2004; Fajas et al. 1997; Grün and Blumberg 2006; Vidal-Puig et al. 1997). In fact, enhanced PPAR-γ signaling, attributed to a mutation that enhances its intrinsic activity, was found to be associated with human obesity (Ristow et al. 1998). Orio et al. (2003) suggested that a polymorphism in exon 6 of the PPAR-γ gene plays a role in development of obesity in PCOS patients.