Vascular Toxicity of Endocrine Disruptors: A Thinly Veiled Threat

Cardiovascular diseasesCardiovascular diseases (CVDs) represent a leading cause of health care concern due to their increasing prevalence and severe consequences. Along with significantly lowering life expectancy (mainly in developing countries) and impairing life quality (particularly, in the developed ones), CVDs place a heavy financial burden on national health systems worldwide. The scale of this growing epidemic cannot be entirely explained by the traditional risk factors; accordingly, novel potential contributors to the development of CVDs have been systematically researched in order to increase the prevention effectiveness. Endocrine disruptorsEndocrine disruptors (EDs) are mainly man-made chemical substances present in the consumer products, food and environment, which disrupt the endocrine system’s functions and cause a range of adverse effects in various organs and tissues. There is currently a wealth of information on their endocrine disrupting effects, i.e. activation/inhibition of estrogen, androgen, thyroid receptor signaling and steroidogenesisEstrogen, androgen, thyroid receptor signaling and steroidogenesis (EATS) modalities, collectively known as EATS. However, the non-EATS modalities of disrupting homeostasis of hormone-regulated systems/organs by chemicals are currently emerging research topics. As such, accumulating evidence suggests that EDs negatively impact on cardiovascular health outcomes. The aim of this chapter is to summarize the current knowledge about the vascular toxicityVascular toxicity of two most common classes of EDs, bisphenolsBisphenols and phthalatesPhthalates. We provide herein translational evidence that unveil the deleterious consequences of both acute and chronic exposure of vascular animal and human samples (cells and tissues) to these chemicals, alone and/or in mixtures. There is an unmet need for the inclusion of EDs as a novel cardiovascular risk factor in the guidelines of scientific societies and for global and regional initiatives to minimize the widespread use of these chemicals by integrating the prevention of EDs exposure into the climate policies.