RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The European chemicals' legislation REACH aims to protect man and the environment from substances of very high concern (SVHC). Chemicals like endocrine disruptors (EDs) may be subject to authorization. Identification of (potential) EDs with regard to the environment is limited because specific experimental assessments are not standard requirements under REACH. Evidence is based on a combination of in vitro and in vivo experiments (if available), expert judgement, and structural analogy with known EDs. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study are to review and refine structural alerts for the indication of potential estrogenic and androgenic endocrine activities based on in vitro studies; to analyze in vivo mammalian long-term reproduction studies with regard to estrogen- and androgen-sensitive endpoints in order to identify potential indicators for endocrine activity with regard to the environment; to assess the consistency of potential estrogenic and androgenic endocrine activities based on in vitro assays and in vivo mammalian long-term reproduction studies and fish life-cycle tests; and to evaluate structural alerts, in vitro assays, and in vivo mammalian long-term reproduction studies for the indication of potential estrogenic and androgenic endocrine disruptors in fish. RESULTS: Screening for potential endocrine activities in fish via estrogenic and androgenic modes of action based on structural alerts provides similar information as in vitro receptor-mediated assays. Additional evidence can be obtained from in vivo mammalian long-term reproduction studies. Conclusive confirmation is possible with fish life-cycle tests. Application of structural alerts to the more than 33,000 discrete organic compounds of the EINECS inventory indicated 3585 chemicals (approx. 11%) as potential candidates for estrogenic and androgenic effects that should be further investigated. Endocrine activities of the remaining substances cannot be excluded; however, because the structural alerts perform much better for substances with (very) high estrogenic and androgenic activities, there is reasonable probability that the most hazardous candidates have been identified. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of structural alerts, in vitro receptor-based assays, and in vivo mammalian studies may support the priority setting for further assessments of chemicals with potential environmental hazards due to estrogenic and androgenic activities.
RESUMO
Studies on reproductive toxicity need high numbers of test animals. Therefore, we investigated whether chemical structural features (SF) in combination with in vitro data on specific adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) may be used for predicting reproductive toxicity of untested chemicals. Using the OECD Toolbox and expert judgment, we identified 89 structure groups for 275 chemicals for which the results of prenatal developmental toxicity or multigeneration studies were present in the Fraunhofer database on Fertility and Developmental Toxicity in experimental animals (FeDTex) database. Likewise, we evaluated 220 chemicals which had been tested in reporter gene assays on endocrine ((anti)estrogenic and (anti)androgenic) properties in the CALUX(®) test battery. There was a large spread of effect levels for substances within the chemical structure groups for both, in vivo and in vitro results. The groups of highest concern (diphenyl derivatives, planar conjugated systems with fused rings, phenols and organophosphates) correlated quite well, however, between the in vivo and in vitro data on estrogenic activity. For the 56 chemicals represented in both databases, lowest effect doses in vivo correlated well with the estrogenic activity in vitro. These results suggest that a panel of assays covering relevant AOPs and data on metabolism and toxicokinetics may allow prediction of relative reproductive or development toxicity potency within the identified chemical structure groups.
