Placental outcomes of phthalate exposure

The effects of endocrine‐disrupting chemicals on ovarian‐ and ovulation‐related fertility outcomes

“…These EDCs were selected due to their presence and/or persistence in the environment, ubiquitous human exposure, and links to reproductive dysfunction. The effects of EDCs on other aspects of fertility, such as gametogenesis, uterine function, placentation, fetal development, and so forth, are outside of the scope of this review but are reviewed elsewhere (Basak et al, 2020 ; Caserta et al, 2021 ; Ge et al, 2019 ; Gingrich et al, 2020 ; Gore et al, 2015 ; Spencer et al, 2012 ; Warner et al, 2021 ).…”

Mono(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate induces transcriptomic changes in placental cells based on concentration, fetal sex, and trophoblast cell type

“…Specifically, prenatal phthalate exposure has been associated with perinatal health outcomes including decreased anogenital distance in male infants (Swan et al 2005 ) and increased odds of preterm birth (Ferguson et al 2014 , 2019 ). It has also been associated with disruptions to key hormones involved in fetal reproductive development as well as the regulation of parturition, including decreased maternal serum testosterone concentration (Sathyanarayana et al 2014 ), increased maternal serum estrone and estradiol concentrations (Sathyanarayana et al 2017 ), decreased second trimester corticotropin-releasing hormone (Cathey et al 2019 ), and altered human chorionic gonadotropin expression (Adibi et al 2017 ).The placenta has been investigated as a regulator of these adverse outcomes in a number of studies, highlighting the need for a better understanding of how phthalates affect placental physiology (Warner et al 2021 ).…”

“…The placenta is the primary barrier between mother and fetus, and protects the fetus from environmental exposures, such as smoking, air pollution, and chemicals, including endocrine disruptors like phthalates (Vrooman et al 2016 ; Everson and Marsit 2018 ). The effects of maternal phthalate exposure on the placenta have been extensively studied in humans, animals, and cells as reviewed by Warner et al and Strakovsky and Schantz (Strakovsky and Schantz 2018 ; Warner et al 2021 ). Most of these studies evaluate phthalates by studying their metabolites, as phthalate parent compounds are quickly degraded through a two-step metabolism involving hydrolysis and conjugation followed by excretion in urine (Frederiksen et al 2007 ).…”

“…Though these two studies provide strong evidence for phthalate-induced gene expression changes in the placenta, the observational nature of the studies does not allow for causal conclusions. While there have been several in vitro studies on the effects of phthalates on the placenta during pregnancy, most of these studies have been limited in deriving mechanisms of toxicity due to evaluating expression of only a small subset of candidate genes (Tetz et al 2013 , p. 201; Wang et al 2016 ; Meruvu et al 2016b ; Adibi et al 2017 ; Strakovsky and Schantz 2018 ; Zhang et al 2020a ; Warner et al 2021 ). To date, there has only been a single in vitro study utilizing RNA sequencing technology to evaluate the effect of phthalates in placental cells which used trophoblast stem cells from a rhesus monkey, limiting translation of the results to human pregnancies (Midic et al 2018 ).…”

Maternal urinary bisphenols and phthalates in relation to estimated fetal weight across mid to late pregnancy

“…Rather than focusing on changes at the mean, we used quantile regression to examine exposure-outcome relationships across percentiles of fetal weight, which allowed us to examine whether exposure was more impactful among smaller or larger babies. Finally, given established sex differences in fetal development ( Rosenfeld, 2015 ), as well as known sex-differential effects of bisphenols and phthalates on fetal and placental endpoints, we examined moderation by fetal sex ( Casas et al, 2016 ; Strakovsky and Schantz, 2018 ; Warner et al, 2021 ).…”