Thyroid hormone is essential for normal brain development. Therefore, it is a genuine concern that thyroid function can be altered by a very large number of chemicals routinely found in the environment and in samples of human and wildlife tissues. These chemicals range from natural to manufactured compounds. They can produce thyroid dysfunction when they are absent from the diet, as in the case of iodine, or when they are present in the diet, as in the case of thionamides. Recent clinical evidence strongly suggests that brain development is much more sensitive to thyroid hormone excess or deficit than previously believed. In addition, recent experimental research provides new insight into the developmental processes affected by thyroid hormone. Based on the authors' research focusing on the ability of polychlorinated biphenyls to alter the expression of thyroid hormone-responsive genes in the developing brain, this review provides background information supporting a new way of approaching risk analysis of thyroid disruptors. endemias occurring in different parts of the world have led to the proposal that the various symptoms of the two forms of cretinism arise from thyroid hormone deficits occurring at different developmental windows of vulnerability (15,17,49). Therefore, thyroid hormone appears to play an important role in fetal brain development, perhaps before the onset of fetal thyroid function.The second type of pathological situation is that of subtle, undiagnosed maternal hypothyroxinemia. The concept and definition of maternal hypothyroxinemia were developed in a series of papers by . Low thyroid hormone was initially defined empirically-those pregnant women with the lowest butanol-extractable iodine among all pregnant women (55,57). This work was among the first to document an association between subclinical hypothyroidism in pregnant women and neurological function of the offspring. After the development of radioimmunoassay for thyroid hormone, Pop et al. (58) found that the presence of antibodies to thyroid peroxidase in pregnant women, independent of thyroid hormone levels per se, is associated with significantly lower IQ in the offspring. Subsequent studies have shown that children born to women with thyroxine (T 4 ) levels in the lowest 10 th percentile of the normal range had a higher risk of low IQ and attention deficit (25). Excellent recent reviews discuss these studies in detail (24,57,59). Taken together, these studies present strong evidence that maternal thyroid hormone plays a role in fetal brain development before the onset of fetal thyroid function, and that thyroid hormone deficits in pregnant women can produce irreversible neurological effects in their offspring (18,19,22,37,(60)(61)(62). Thyroid Hormone and Brain Development in Experimental AnimalsConsiderable research using experimental animals has provided important insight into the mechanisms and consequences of thyroid hormone action in brain development. The body of this work is far too extensive to review here but has been rev...

Thyroid hormones (THs) are required for normal brain and somatic development and for the proper regulation of physiology in both children and adults. Thyroid function is controlled by the dynamic interrelationships between the hypothalamus, the pituitary and the thyroid. These dynamic relationships maintain circulating levels of THs within a narrow range under normal conditions. Normally, there is likely to be a tight relationship between changes in circulating levels of THs and changes in TH action in various target tissues. This relationship is maintained by tissue-level mechanisms that include TH metabolism and transport. Environmental chemicals that interfere with TH signaling mechanisms (Endocrine Disrupting chemicals, EDcs) may produce adverse effects both in the individual and in a population. Because of the complex nature of the regulation of thyroid function and TH action, the consequences of EDc exposure is also likely to be complex and our ability to understand these effects as well as to screen for potential EDcs must consider this complexity. Specifically, if there are chemicals in the environment that directly interfere with TH action through their receptors but do not affect circulating TH levels, they would not be identified as thyroid toxicants by currently applied screening methods or by epidemiological studies. The goal of this review is therefore to identify the issues that must be clearly resolved before effective risk assessment can be performed. HORMONES 2010, 9(1) the hypothalamic pituitaRy thyRoid axis (hpt) axis To develop efficient risk assessment strategies for thyroid toxicants, it is important to understand both the normal functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis (HPT) and what we know about individual thyroid toxicants. To this end, background information about the HPT axis and its relevance to thyroid toxicology is reviewed here. Key words: Thyroid hormones, Endocrine disruptors, Environmental chemicals, Thyroid toxicants ReviewCirculating levels of Thyroid Hormones (THs) are maintained within a relatively narrow range 1 in large part by a negative feedback relationship between circulating levels of THs and those of Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH). THs appear to exert this effect by acting on one subtype of the TH receptor (TR). TRs are encoded by two separate genes,  and , the primary transcripts of which are alternatively spliced

The results of our prospective study have revealed great diversity in the treatment regimens used to manage MM in real-life practice. This diversity was linked to factors such as novel agent accessibility and evolving treatment recommendations. Our results provide insight into associated clinical benefits.

Immunohistochemical and in situ hybridization techniques were used to investigate the neuroanatomical distribution of arginine vasotocin-like systems in the roughskin newt (Taricha granulosa). Vasotocin-like-immunoreactive neuronal cell bodies were identified that, based on topographical position, most likely, are homologous to groups of vasopressin-immunoreactive neuronal cell bodies described in mammals, including those in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, medial amygdala, basal septal region, magnocellular basal forebrain-including the horizontal limb of the diagonal band of Broca, paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei, suprachiasmatic nucleus, and dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus. Several additional vasotocin-like-immunoreactive cell groups were observed in the forebrain and brainstem regions; these observations are compared with previous studies of vasotocin- and vasopressin-like systems in vertebrates. Arginine vasotocin-like-immunoreactive fibers and presumed terminals also were widely distributed with high densities in the basal limbic forebrain, the ventral preoptic and hypothalamic regions, and the brainstem ventromedial tegmentum. Based on in situ hybridization studies with synthetic oligonucleotide probes for vasotocin and the related neuropeptide mesotocin, as well as double-labeling studies with combined immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization, we conclude that the vasotocin immunohistochemical procedures used identify vasotocin-like, but not mesotocin-like, elements in the brain of T. granulosa. The distribution of arginine vasotocin-like systems in T. granulosa is greater than the distribution previously reported for any other single vertebrate species; however, it is consistent with an emerging pattern of distribution of vasotocin- and vasopressin-like peptides in vertebrates. Complexity in the vasotocinergic system adds further support to the conclusion that this peptide regulates multiple neurophysiological and neuroendocrinological functions.

High-DBP novel exposure or removal from chronic high-DBP exposure could alter elements of the thyroid system, and most probably alters the peripheral T4 conversion to T3 and thyroid autoimmunity, consistent with thyroid disruption. After exposure removal, these trends were mostly reversed.