Metabolic disruption in context: Clinical avenues for synergistic perturbations in energy homeostasis by endocrine disrupting chemicals

Abstract

The global epidemic of metabolic disease is a clear and present danger to both individual and societal health. Understanding the myriad factors contributing to obesity and diabetes is essential for curbing their decades-long expansion. Emerging data implicate environmental endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the pathogenesis of metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. The phenylsulfamide fungicide and anti-fouling agent tolylfluanid (TF) was recently added to the list of EDCs promoting metabolic dysfunction. Dietary exposure to this novel metabolic disruptor promoted weight gain, increased adiposity, and glucose intolerance as well as systemic and cellular insulin resistance. Interestingly, the increase in body weight and adipose mass was not a consequence of increased food consumption; rather, it may have resulted from disruptions in diurnal patterns of energy intake, raising the possibility that EDCs may promote metabolic dysfunction through alterations in circadian rhythms. While these studies provide further evidence that EDCs may promote the development of obesity and diabetes, many questions remain regarding the clinical factors that modulate patient-specific consequences of EDC exposure, including the impact of genetics, diet, lifestyle, underlying disease, pharmacological treatments, and clinical states of fat redistribution. Currently, little is known regarding the impact of these factors on an individual’s susceptibility to environmentally-mediated metabolic disruption. Advances in these areas will be critical for translating EDC science into the clinic to enable physicians to stratify an individual’s risk of developing EDC-induced metabolic disease and to provide direction for treating exposed patients.

Early-Life Phthalate Exposure and Adiposity at 8 Years of Age

“…However, our measures of diet were crude, and it is possible that there is residual confounding from diet, as maternal/child diet may be associated with exposure to some phthalates, like DEHP, and diet quality may be associated with child adiposity ( Braun 2016 ; Romano et al 2014 ). Further, some studies have suggested a possible synergistic effect between diet and EDCs ( Sargis 2015 ). As such, other studies with more comprehensive diet information should consider diet as a potential modifier of phthalate (or other EDC) exposure.…”

Association between environmental quality and diabetes in the USA

“…Although in rare cases isolated exposure to a single chemical is sufficient to drive diabetes development, it is much more likely that multiple exposures, coupled with additional risk factors, are required to drive diabetes pathogenesis. Epidemiological research traditionally focuses on single environmental exposures.…”

Interventions to Address Environmental Metabolism-Disrupting Chemicals: Changing the Narrative to Empower Action to Restore Metabolic Health

“…Finally, avoidance of diets that amplify the deleterious effects of MDCs in favor of those that antagonize their effects is essential, while standard clinical advice to exercise and lose weight are equally necessary components for addressing the threat of environmental toxicants to metabolic health. As we gain a greater appreciation for how the diverse array of intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors that promote metabolic disease development interact with each other (27, 169), new interventions are likely to emerge.…”