Placental Toxicology of Organic Pollutants

MAGNARELLI GLADIS; GUIÑAZÚ NATALIA

Placenta: function, development and disease

NOVA SCIENCE PUBLISHERS

Año: 2012; p. 1 - 42

Pregnant women are exposed to multiple chemicals, including both banned and contemporary contaminants. Moreover, some studies have found that exposure to multiple chemicals, which may act on the same common adverse outcome, elicit a greater toxic effect than the exposure to a single chemical. Since xenobiotics are ubiquitous at work, home and environment, there is a continual need for monitoring and additional research studies to address the complexity of the potential health effects. in this sense, the placenta is a key tool for biomonitoring xenobiotic exposure. It is easy to collect and provides a large sample size for analysis. It shows the cumulative effects of pregnancy-related events, reflects the intrauterine environment and the cumulative exposure of the fetus, and also can be examined to a greater degree than infants. Moreover, considering that pathological conditions in the placenta are important causes of intrauterine, perinatal or maternal death, and a great deal of mother and child morbidity, understanding the impact of xenobiotics in the placenta represents a major concern to toxicologists. This chapter updates and provides a comprehensive discussion on the molecular and biochemical bases of toxicity of the organic pollutants detected most frequently in the placenta, such as organochlorine pesticides, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, as well as phthalates, phenols and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The links between exposure to these compounds during the gestational period and the adverse reproductive and developmental outcomes as well as long term diseases are also considered. Future challenges, such as placental microarray, epigenetic studies and the effects of pollutant mixtures will be briefly described