The OBELIX project: early life exposure to endocrine disruptors and obesity.

Abstract

The hypothesis of whether early life exposure (both pre- and early postnatal) to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may be a risk factor for obesity and related metabolic diseases later in life will be tested in the European research project OBELIX (OBesogenic Endocrine disrupting chemicals: LInking prenatal eXposure to the development of obesity later in life). OBELIX is a 4-y project that started in May 2009 and which has the following 5 main objectives: 1) to assess early life exposure in humans to major classes of EDCs identified as potential inducers of obesity (ie, dioxin-like compounds, non-dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls, organochlorine pesticides, brominated flame retardants, phthalates, and perfluorinated compounds) by using mother-child cohorts from 4 European regions with different food-contaminant exposure patterns; 2) to relate early life exposure to EDCs with clinical markers, novel biomarkers, and health-effect data related to obesity; 3) to perform hazard characterization of early life exposure to EDCs for the development of obesity later in life by using a mouse model; 4) to determine mechanisms of action of obesogenic EDCs on developmental programming with in vivo and in vitro genomics and epigenetic analyses; and 5) to perform risk assessments of prenatal exposure to obesogenic EDCs in food by integrating maternal exposure through food-contaminant exposure and health-effect data in children and hazard data in animal studies.

• Authors: Juliette Legler, Timo Hamers, Margot van Eck van der Sluijs-van de Bor, Greet Schoeters, Leo van der Ven, Merete Eggesbo, Janna Koppe, Max Feinberg, Tomas Trnovec
• Journal: The American journal of clinical nutrition (Am J Clin Nutr) Vol. 94 Issue 6 Suppl Pg. 1933S-1938S (Dec 2011) ISSN: 1938-3207 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 21543539 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Biomarkers
• Endocrine Disruptors
• Flame Retardants
• Pesticides
• Polychlorinated Biphenyls

Topics

• Animals
• Biomarkers
• Child
• Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
• Child, Preschool
• Cohort Studies
• Disease Models, Animal
• Endocrine Disruptors (toxicity)
• Environmental Exposure (adverse effects)
• Europe
• Female
• Flame Retardants (toxicity)
• Follow-Up Studies
• Food Contamination (analysis)
• Humans
• Male
• Maternal Exposure
• Mice
• Milk, Human (chemistry)
• Obesity (epidemiology, etiology)
• Pesticides (toxicity)
• Polychlorinated Biphenyls (toxicity)
• Risk Assessment
• Risk Factors