Endocrine Abstracts

According to the World Health Organization, obesity is one of the most important public health challenges of the 21st Century. There is no doubt that excessive calories intake and lack of exercise, are important factors, and that genetics plays a critical role. However, because genes in the population do not change fast enough, other causes must be involved. The involvement of other causes in the etiology of obesity is further strengthened by the fact that obesity is increasing sharply in young children, including babies for whom changes in exercise and eating patterns are unlikely to have occurred in the past decades. Furthermore, increases in body weight have also been reported in laboratory, domestic and wild animals. Such evidences strengthen the hypothesis that environmental factors are at play. In 2006, a new theory on the role of environmental contaminants in the etiology of obesity was proposed by Dr. Bruce Blumberg. This theory, known as the ‘obesogen effect’ postulates that environmental chemicals are able to promote obesity by increasing the number of fat cells and/or the storage of fat into the existing adipocytes. It was originally proposed for tributyltin (TBT), a potent endocrine disrupting chemical responsible for sex changes in marine gastropods. This endocrine disruptor was responsible in vitro and in experimental animals for the induction of adipogenesis; furthermore, prenatal exposure to TBT in mice was associated with adiposity later in life and in future generations. Since the obesogen theory was proposed, compelling evidences from in vitro, in vivo an epidemiological studies arose in the scientific literature and today several chemicals are considered as obesogens. This presentation will provide an overview of the implications of obesogens in metabolic disorders, while explaining the major classes of obesogenic compounds to which we are continuously exposed. Preventive measures to reduce exposure to these toxic chemicals will be described and the future perspectives in this exciting emerging field will be discussed.