Implications of environmental toxicants on ovarian follicles: how it can adversely affect the female fertility?

Abstract

The pool of primordial follicles formed in the ovaries during early development determines the span and quality of fertility in the reproductive life of a woman. As exposure to occupational and environmental toxicants (ETs) has become inevitable, consequences on female fertility need to be established. This review focuses on the ETs, especially well-studied prototypes of the classes endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), heavy metals, agrochemicals, cigarette smoke, certain chemicals used in plastic, cosmetic and sanitary product industries etc that adversely affect the female fertility. Many in vitro, in vivo and epidemiological studies have indicated that these ETs have the potential to affect folliculogenesis and cause reduced fertility in women. Here, we emphasize on four main conditions: polycystic ovary syndrome, primary ovarian insufficiency, multioocytic follicles and meiotic defects including aneuploidies which can be precipitated by ETs. These are considered main causes for reduced female fertility by directly altering the follicular recruitment, development and oocytic meiosis. Although substantial experimental evidence is drawn with respect to the detrimental effects, it is clear that establishing the role of one ET as a risk factor in a single condition is difficult as multiple conditions have common risk factors. Therefore, it is important to consider this as a matter of public and wildlife health.

Environmental Pollutants and Oxidative Stress in Terrestrial and Aquatic Organisms: Examination of the Total Picture and Implications for Human Health

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Bisphenols A and F, but not S, induce apoptosis in bovine granulosa cells via the intrinsic mitochondrial pathway

“…Although there are multiple factors that play a role, including lifestyle choices in primis , one noteworthy contributor to this decline is an increase in both female and male infertility rates ( 4 ). Increased exposure to man-made environmental pollutants and toxicants, such as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), is known to have negative impacts on reproductive health, thus is suspected to contribute to the increase in infertility rates ( 5 ).…”

ER/AR Multi-Conformational Docking Server: A Tool for Discovering and Studying Estrogen and Androgen Receptor Modulators

“…It is noted that a number of the compounds act as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) with the potential to interfere the hormone systems in human or wild lives ( Schug et al, 2011 ; Dionisio et al, 2015 ). The occupational and environmental exposures of EDCs are strongly correlated with the adverse health outcomes such as reproductive health, development disorders, oncological, immunological and cardiovascular disease, obesity, and neurobehavior disorders ( Elobeid and Allison 2008 ; Yilmaz et al, 2020 ; Boudalia et al, 2021 ; O'Shaughnessy et al, 2021 ; Priya et al, 2021 ). Numerous efforts have been taken to identify that if a compound is endocrine-active or not.…”