Exposure to Phthalates and Aging

May 14, 2020
1:00 pm US Eastern Time

We are excited to announce the first webinar in the series, Young EDC Scientists Showcase (YESS), which is sponsored by the Healthy Environment and Endocrine Disruptor Strategies (HEEDS) Mentoring Working Group and coordinated by Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE). During this webinar, we heard two researchers discuss their work on phthalate exposures and the aging process. Emily Brehm, PhD candidate in Dr. Jodi Flaws's lab at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, talked about how phthalates influence overall reproductive aging in the mouse. Katherine Hatcher, PhD candidate in Dr. Megan Mahoney's lab at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, presented her research on exposure to phthalates and menopause symptoms.

Featured Speakers

Katherine Hatcher is a PhD candidate in Dr. Megan Mahoney's lab at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, and will soon transition to a post-doc position at Albany Medical College. Founder and host of the Endocrine Disruptors Podcast, Katherine joined Dr. Mahoney's lab in the fall of 2015 when she started as a PhD student in the Neuroscience Program. Prior to coming to Illinois, Katherine completed her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN, in 2012. She then taught high school chemistry and human physiology in Chicago until 2014. Then, she completed her Master of Science in Neurobiology at Northwestern University in 2015. Her dissertation research is focused on the impact of hormone changes and phthalate exposure on sleep quality and depression in midlife women.

Emily Brehm is a PhD candidate in Dr. Jodi Flaws's lab at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois. She obtained her B.S. from Eastern Illinois University in Biological Sciences. She has worked in the lab since 2014 starting as a technician, and she started her PhD in the lab in the fall of 2017. Emily recently received significant awards on her PhD work investigating the impact of phthalates on the aging ovary. Her research focuses on how prenatal exposure to phthalates may accelerate reproductive aging in a multiple and/or transgenerational manner in female mice.

The YESS webinar series is sponsored by the Healthy Environment and Endocrine Disruptor Strategies (HEEDS) Mentoring Working Group and coordinated by the Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE). This series will feature speakers in the early stages of their careers, such as PhD students, post-docs, and other early-career researchers who study endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). They will present their research projects and findings on webinars with 2-3 speakers and time for questions. Presentations will be recorded and available online.

This webinar was moderated by Sarah Howard, MS, Founder and Manager, DiabetesandEnvironment.org. It lasted for 45 minutes and was recorded for our call and webinar archive. If you are interested in presenting on one of these webinars, or have a recommendation for a speaker, please contact HEEDS.

Slides

Emily Brehm: Prenatal exposure to an environmentally relevant phthalate mixture accelerates reproductive aging in multiple generations of female mice.

Katherine Hatcher: Associations of phthalate exposure with self-reported sleep disruptions in menopausal women.

Resources

Brehm, E., Flaws, JA. (2019). Transgenerational Effects of Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals on Male and Female Reproduction. Endocrinology. 160(6):1421-1435. doi: 10.1210/en.2019-00034.

Rattan, S. Brehm, E., Gao, L., Niermann, S., Flaws, JA. (2018). Prenatal exposure to di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate disrupts ovarian function in a transgenerational manner in female mice. Biol Reprod. 98(1):130-145. doi: 10.1093/biolre/iox154.

Rattan, S., Zhou, C., Chiang, C., Mahalingam, S., Brehm, E., Flaws, JA. (2017). Exposure to endocrine disruptors during adulthood: consequences for female fertility. J Endocrinol. 233(3):R109-R129. doi: 10.1530/JOE-17-0023.

Li, K., Liszka, M., Zhou, C., Brehm, E., Flaws, J.A., Nowak, R.A. (2020). Prenatal exposure to a phthalate mixture leads to multigenerational and transgenerational effects on uterine morphology and function in mice. Reprod Toxicol. 93:178-190. doi: 10.1016/j.reprotox.2020.02.012.

Rattan, S., Beers, H.K., Kannan, A., Ramakrishnan, A., Brehm, E., Bagchi, I., Irudayaraj, J.M.K., Flaws, J.A. (2019). Prenatal and ancestral exposure to di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate alters gene expression and DNA methylation in mouse ovaries. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 379:114629. doi: 10.1016/j.taap.2019.114629.

Hatcher, K.M., Royston, S.E., Mahoney, M.M. (2018). Modulation of circadian rhythms through estrogen receptor signaling. Eur. J Neurosci. 51(1):217-228. doi: 10.1111/ejn.14184.

Hatcher, K.M., Willing, J., Chiang, C., Rattan, S., Flaws, J.A., Mahoney, M.M. (2019). Exposure to di-(2-ethylhexyl phthalate transgenerationally alters anxiety-like behavior and amygdala gene expression in adult male and female mice. Physiol. Behav. 207:7-14. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.04.018.