Characterization of toxicological effects on the energy metabolism after exposure to endocrine disrupting compounds

In this project we’ll try to examine if endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) are capable off disrupting pancreas, liver and adipocyt function, if they can cause changes in insulin, glucagon and leptin levels and if they can induce molecular mechanisms that could be associated with certain metabolic diseases such as diabetes, obesity and/or cardiovascular diseases. A limited list of endocrine disrupting chemicals, known as pollutants, will be studied. This project attempts to show that these chemicals disturb energy reservoirs of cells, specifically by intervening with glucose and/or lipid metabolism. Special attention will be directed to the elucidation of the mechanisms of action that underlie these disruption.
Moreover, this project will investigate if the in vitro model could be used as an alternative test system to trace and toxicologically characterize EDCs in view of the insulin/glucagon related metabolism, mainly by determination of a limited range of biomarker genes with a toxicological predicting and/or xeno-estrogen characterizing value.