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Endocrine-disrupting chemicals and the regulation of energy balance

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 13, pages 536–546 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

This article has been updated

Key Points

  • Humans are exposed to a cocktail of common metabolism-disrupting chemicals (MDCs) that affect every aspect of energy balance

  • MDCs alter energy intake by targeting the gut cells involved in nutrient transport and peptide secretion, as well as the gut microbiota and hypothalamic neurons

  • Energy expenditure is affected by the influence of MDCs on brown adipose tissue function, skeletal muscle metabolism and thyroid hormone production and action

  • MDCs act on the most important metabolic tissues involved in energy storage: the endocrine pancreas, the liver, white adipose tissue and skeletal muscle

  • MDCs disrupt insulin secretion in pancreatic β cells and alter insulin-dependent glucose metabolism in the liver, skeletal muscle and adipocytes, modifying lipogenesis and glucose metabolism after altering the expression of essential genes

  • MDCs also affect energy homeostasis, as they alter the metabolic cues that connect the different organs involved in metabolism

Abstract

Energy balance involves the adjustment of food intake, energy expenditure and body fat reserves through homeostatic pathways. These pathways include a multitude of biochemical reactions, as well as hormonal cues. Dysfunction of this homeostatic control system results in common metabolism-related pathologies, which include obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Metabolism-disrupting chemicals (MDCs) are a particular class of endocrine-disrupting chemicals that affect energy homeostasis. MDCs affect multiple endocrine mechanisms and thus different cell types that are implicated in metabolic control. MDCs affect gene expression and the biosynthesis of key enzymes, hormones and adipokines that are essential for controlling energy homeostasis. This multifaceted spectrum of actions precludes compensatory responses and favours metabolic disorders. Herein, we review the main mechanisms used by MDCs to alter energy balance. This work should help to identify new MDCs, as well as novel targets of their action.

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Figure 1: Organs targeted by metabolism-disrupting chemicals.
Figure 2: Lipid metabolism and metabolism-disrupting chemicals.

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Change history

  • 02 June 2017

    In the original published article, figure 1 was incorrect. The editors apologize to the authors and the readers for this error. This error has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge C. Sala-Ripoll for designing the figures. The authors' laboratories are funded by grants from Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (SAF2014-58335-P, BFU2013-42789-P and BFU2015-70664-R); Xunta de Galicia (2015-CP080 and PIE13/00024); the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (ERC StG-2011-OBESITY53-281408); and Generalitat Valenciana PROMETEOII/2015/016. CIBERDEM and CIBERobn are initiatives of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III.

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  1. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Diabetes y Enfermedades Metabólicas Asociadas (CIBERDEM) and Institute of Bioengineering, Miguel Hernández University of Elche, Avda Universidad s/n, Elche, 03202, Alicante, Spain

    Angel Nadal, Ivan Quesada & Paloma Alonso-Magdalena

  2. Instituto de Investigaciones Sanitarias (IDIS), Centro Singular de Investigación en Medicina Molecular y Enfermedades Crónicas (CiMUS) and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERobn), Avda. Barcelona s/n, 15706, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Eva Tudurí & Rubén Nogueiras

  3. Department of Physiology, Centro Singular de Investigación en Medicina Molecular y Enfermedades Crónicas (CiMUS), University of Santiago de Compostela, Calle San Francisco s/n, 15706, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Rubén Nogueiras

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A.N., I.Q., E.T., R.N. and P.A.-M. researched data for the article, made substantial contributions to discussions about the content, wrote the Review and reviewed and/or edited the manuscript before submission.

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Main effects of MDCs that might alter energy balance from in vitro studies. (PDF 759 kb)

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Nadal, A., Quesada, I., Tudurí, E. et al. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals and the regulation of energy balance. Nat Rev Endocrinol 13, 536–546 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2017.51

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