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Cadmium's disguise dupes the estrogen receptor

Cadmium is a toxic environmental pollutant that has worrisome estrogenic effects in cell culture. New data from rats show that cadmium can act as an estrogen mimic in the whole animal, inducing conditions ranging from uterine hyperplasia to early onset of puberty (pages 1081–1084).

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Figure 1: Estrogens activate multiple ERα-dependent responses.

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Safe, S. Cadmium's disguise dupes the estrogen receptor. Nat Med 9, 1000–1001 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0803-1000

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