In-utero exposure to real-life environmental chemicals disrupts gene expression within the hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis of prepubertal and adult rams.

Environmental chemicals (ECs) have been associated with a broad range of disorders and diseases. Daily exposure to various ECs in the environment, or real-life exposure, has raised significant public health concerns. Utilizing the biosolids-treated pasture (BTP) sheep model, this study demonstrates that in-utero exposure to a real-life EC mixture disrupts hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis gene expression and reproductive traits in prepubertal (8-week-old, 8w) and adult (11-month-old) male sheep.

Preconceptional and in utero exposure of sheep to a real-life environmental chemical mixture disrupts key markers of energy metabolism in male offspring.

Over recent decades, an extensive array of anthropogenic chemicals have entered the environment and have been implicated in the increased incidence of an array of diseases, including metabolic syndrome. The ubiquitous presence of these environmental chemicals (ECs) necessitates the use of real-life exposure models to the assess cumulative risk burden to metabolic health. Sheep that graze on biosolids-treated pastures are exposed to a real-life mixture of ECs such as phthalates, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and metabolites thereof, and this EC exposure can result in metabolic disorders in their offspring.

Critical review and analysis of literature on low dose exposure to chemical mixtures in mammalian systems.

Anthropogenic chemicals are ubiquitous throughout the environment. Consequentially, humans are exposed to hundreds of anthropogenic chemicals daily. Current chemical risk assessments are primarily based on testing individual chemicals in rodents at doses that are orders of magnitude higher than that of human exposure.