Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) have significant impacts on biological systems, and have been shown to interfere with physiological systems, especially by disrupting the hormone balance. During the last few decades, EDCs have been shown to affect reproductive, neurological, and metabolic development and function and even stimulate tumor growth. EDC exposure during development can disrupt normal development patterns and alter susceptibility to disease. Many chemicals have endocrine-disrupting properties, including bisphenol A, organochlorines, polybrominated flame retardants, alkylphenols, and phthalates. These compounds have gradually been elucidated as risk factors for many diseases, such as reproductive, neural, and metabolic diseases and cancers. Endocrine disruption has been spread to wildlife and species that are connected to the food chains. Dietary uptake represents an important source of EDC exposure. Although EDCs represent a significant public health concern, the relationship and specific mechanism between EDCs and diseases remain unclear. This review focuses on the disease-EDC relationship and the disease endpoints associated with endocrine disruption for a better understanding of the relationship between EDCs-disease and elucidates the development of new prevention/treatment opportunities and screening methods.

Essential oils have potential biological effects, i.e., antibiotic, anticarcinogenic, and sedative effects during stress. In the present study, we investigated the antibacterial and antifungal effects of essential oils extracted from the coniferous species Pinus densiflora, Pinus koraiensis, and Chamaecyparis obtusa, because their biological activities have not been yet elucidated. The essential oils were quantified using gas chromatography and identified in gas chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis. Simultaneously, antibacterial and antifungal assays were performed using the essential oils distilled from the needles of coniferous trees. The major components and the percentage of each essential oil were: 19.33% β-thujene in P. densiflora; 10.49% α-pinene in P. koraiensis; 10.88% bornyl acetate in C. obtusa. The essential oils from P. densiflora and C. obtusa have antibacterial effects, whereas essential oils from P. koraiensis and C. obtusa have antifungal effects. These results indicate that the essential oils from the three coniferous trees, which have mild antimicrobial properties, can inhibit the growth of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and fungi.

CaBP‐9k may be involved in the active calcium absorption and embryo implantation. Although we generated CaBP‐9k KO mice to explore its function, no distinct phenotypes were observed in these KO mice. It can be hypothesized that TRPV5 and 6 and plasma membrane calcium ATPase 1b may play a role in the regulation of calcium transport to compensate CaBP‐9k deficiency in its KO model. Introduction: Active calcium transport in the duodenum and kidney is carried in three steps: calcium entry through epithelial Ca²⁺ channels (TRPV5 and TRPV6), buffering and/or transport by calbindin‐D9k (CaBP‐9k) and ‐D28k (CaBP‐28k), and extrusion through the plasma membrane calcium ATPase 1b (PMCA1b) and sodium/calcium exchanger 1. Although the molecular mechanism of calcium absorption has been studied using knockouts (KOs) of the vitamin D receptor and CaBP‐28k in animals, the process is not fully understood. Materials and Methods: We generated CaBP‐9k KO mice and assessed the phenotypic characterization and the molecular regulation of active calcium transporting genes when the mice were fed different calcium diets during growth. Results: General phenotypes showed no distinct abnormalities. Thus, the active calcium transport of CaBP‐9k–null mice proceeded normally in this study. Therefore, the compensatory molecular regulation of this mechanism was elucidated. Duodenal TRPV6 and CaBP‐9k mRNA of wildtype (WT) mice increased gradually during preweaning. CaBP‐9k is supposed to be an important factor in active calcium transport, but its role is probably compensated for by other calcium transporter genes (i.e., intestinal TRPV6 and PMCA1b) during preweaning and renal calcium transporters in adult mice. Conclusions: Depletion of the CaBP‐9k gene in a KO mouse model had little phenotypic effect, suggesting that its depletion may be compensated for by calcium transporter genes in the intestine of young mice and in the kidney of adult mice.

Ahn C, et al. J Vet Sci. 2017 Sep;18(3):261-266. https://doi.org/10.4142/jvs.2017.18.3.261