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ToxSci Advance Access originally published online on July 22, 2008
Toxicological Sciences 2008 106(1):206-213; doi:10.1093/toxsci/kfn148
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Toxicology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Do Parabens Have the Ability to Interfere with Steroidogenesis?

Camilla Taxvig*,1, Anne Marie Vinggaard*, Ulla Hass*, Marta Axelstad*, Julie Boberg*, Pernille Reimer Hansen*, Hanne Frederiksen{dagger} and Christine Nellemann*

* National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Department of Toxicology and Risk Assessment, DK-2860 Søborg, Denmark {dagger} Department of Growth and Reproduction, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark

1 To whom correspondence should be addressed at National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Dept. of Toxicology and Risk Assessment, Mørkhøj Bygade 19, DK-2860 Søborg, Denmark. E-mail: camta{at}food.dtu.dk.

Received May 30, 2008; accepted July 17, 2008


  Abstract

The effects of ethyl and butyl paraben on steroidogenesis were evaluated in rats exposed in utero. Pregnant Wistar rats were dosed from gestational day (GD) 7 to GD 21, followed by examination of the dams, and the fetuses. Additionally, both parabens were tested in vitro in the H295R steroidogenesis assay and in the T-screen assay, the later to test for their ability to act as thyroid hormone receptor agonist or antagonist. In the in utero exposure toxicity study, neither ethyl nor butyl paraben showed any treatment-related effects on testosterone production, anogenital distance, or testicular histopathology. However, butyl paraben caused a significant decrease in the mRNA expression level of estradiol receptor-beta in fetal ovaries, and also significantly decreased the mRNA expression of steroidogenic acute regulatory protein and peripheral benzodiazepine receptor in the adrenal glands. In vitro butyl paraben increased the proliferation of the GH3 cells in the T-Screen assay, thereby acting as a weak thyroid hormone receptor agonist. In the adrenal H295R steroidogenesis assay both ethyl and butyl paraben caused a significant increase in the progesterone formation. Overall, the results indicate that butyl paraben might have the ability to act as endocrine disruptor by interfering with the transport of cholesterol to the mitochondrion, thereby interfering with steroidogenesis, but also that the two tested parabens do not show clear endocrine disrupting capabilities in our short-term in vivo experiment.

Key Words: butyl paraben; ethyl paraben; endocrine disruption; h295r assay; t-screen; steroidogenesis; developmental rat study.


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P. R. Hansen, C. Taxvig, S. Christiansen, M. Axelstad, J. Boberg, M. K. Kiersgaard, C. Nellemann, and U. Hass
Evaluation of Endocrine Disrupting Effects of Nitrate after In Utero Exposure in Rats and of Nitrate and Nitrite in the H295R and T-Screen Assay
Toxicol. Sci., April 1, 2009; 108(2): 437 - 444.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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