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ENDOCRINE-DISRUPTING CONTAMINANTS AND REPRODUCTION IN VERTEBRATE WILDLIFE.
Citation:
Crain, D. A. AND L. Guillette Jr. ENDOCRINE-DISRUPTING CONTAMINANTS AND REPRODUCTION IN VERTEBRATE WILDLIFE. REVIEWS IN TOXICOLOGY 1:47-70, (1997).
Description:
The fields of toxicology, endocrinology, and reproductive physiology recently have combined resources to study the effects of endocrine-disrupting contaminants (EDCs) in wildlife populations. EDCs include a wide variety of chemicals that are only related by the ability to disrupt normal function of an animal's endocrine system. Although studies documenting endocrine disruption by contaminants have been conducted for many years, only recently have studies systematically explored the effects and mechanisms of EDCs. This recent synthesis has led to the hypothesis that anthropogenic EDCs are associated with a decrease in reproductive
success and an increase in abnormalities of the reproductive system in vertebrates. This brief review considers the phenomenon of contaminant disruption of wildlife reproduction at several levels: evolutionary, tissue, and mechanistic. Only through such an integrative perspective can an accurate representation be achieved and solutions gained.