Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the structurally related polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are abundant persistent organic pollutants that exert several comparable neurotoxic effects. Importantly, hydroxylated metabolites of PCBs and PBDEs have an increased neurotoxic potency. Recently, we demonstrated that PCBs can act as (partial) agonist on GABAA neurotransmitter receptors, with PC...

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the structurally related polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are abundant persistent organic pollutants that exert several comparable neurotoxic effects. Importantly, hydroxylated metabolites of PCBs and PBDEs have an increased neurotoxic potency. Recently, we demonstrated that PCBs can act as (partial) agonist on GABA(A) neurotransmitter receptors, with ...

The river Meuse, located in western Europe, is contaminated by different pollutants, of both organic and inorganic nature. The predominant sources of Meuse contamination in The Netherlands are agricultural activities and pollution derived from urban areas. Crayfish, water, and sediment samples were collected at four different locations of the river Meuse, in order to cover a large part of the c...

The toxic equivalency concept used for the risk assessment of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) is based on the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR)-mediated toxicity of coplanar dioxin-like (DL) PCBs. Most PCBs in the environment, however, are non-dioxin-like (NDL) PCBs that cannot adopt a coplanar structure required for AhR activation. For NDL-PCBs, no generally accepted risk concept is available b...

The neonatal mouse model has been a valuable tool in determining the long-term effects of early exposure to estrogenic agents in mammals. Using this model, we compared the effects of 2',4',6'-trichloro-4-biphenylol (OH-PCB-30) and 2',3',4',5'-tetrachloro-4-biphenylol (OH-PCB-61) as prototype estrogenic hydroxylated PCBs (OH-PCBs) because they are reported to exhibit relatively high estrogenic a...

Exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), may alter hormonal balance and thereby increase risk of testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT). To study the relationship of PCBs to TGCT, prediagnostic serum samples from 736 cases and 913 controls in the Servicemen's Testicular Tumor Environmental and Endocrine Determinants study were analyzed. Adjusted odds rati...

Organochlorine compounds (OC) were determined in Arctic bivalves (Mya truncata, Serripes groenlandicus, Hiatella arctica and Chlamys islandica) from Svalbard with regard to differences in geographic location, species and variations related to their size and age. Higher chlorinated polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB 101-PCB 194), chlordanes and α-hexachlorocyclohexane (α-HCH) were consistently detec...

The identification of etiological agents in feral fish neoplasia epizootics has been hampered in part by the lack of suitable fish models, and complicated by the likely existence of environmental agents which can act to stimulate or reduce population responses to genotoxin insult. The response of fish to tumor inhibitors and promoters, and the underlying mechanisms of modulation, have been stud...