Endocrine Disruptors, Environmental Justice, and the Ivory Tower

In this video, Professor Tyrone Hayes explains his research showing that Atrazine is an endocrine disruptor that increases the incidence of cancer and alters the development of reproductive organs. He raises the critical questions, “Who is most affected by endocrine disruptors?” and “How is knowledge about endocrine disruptors sequestered in the ivory tower by academic and publishing institutions?” and “Why is it never enough to simply ‘let the science speak for itself?'”

Professor Tyrone Hayes is professor of integrative biology at the University of California at Berkeley and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Tyrone B. Hayes, Vicky Khoury, Anne Narayan, Mariam Nazir, Andrew Park, Travis Brown, Lillian Adame, Elton Chan, Daniel Buchholz, Theresa Stueve, and Sherrie Gallipeau, Atrazine Induces Complete Feminization and Chemical Castration in male African clawed frogs, PNAS, 107:4612, 2010.

And finally, Professor Hayes throws down the Atrazine Rap: “your son or daughter will develop in water just like my tadpoles do”

And please check out a more recent update on the Tyrone Hayes-atrazine saga.

Sex and Food and. . . on the Table

“Sex and food and. . .” What pops into your mind to finish this sentence? For me it’s “rock and roll” (I substitute food for drugs because I don’t need drugs). The latter is also true for Seinfeld fans. Don’t Google “food and sex” though, you might get distracted.

“Sex-and-food” is the key to life. This grammatical impossibility stems from the fact that in the brain, the desires for sex and food seem to be one and the same, sometimes two sides of the same coin. In my upcoming book “Sex and food and. .” (Oxford University Press), I begin by noting that in every-day language food is sexy and sex is foodie;

“In both word and deed, we express our entangled appetites for food and sex, almost as if we confuse the two. In everyday language, food is sexy and sex is foodie. Chocolate is orgasmic and our lovers are delicious. In The Bible we are told to be fruitful and multiply. In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 118 he uses food metaphors for budding romance, for the “sweetness” of true love, and for the “bitter sauces” of infidelity.”

Just a smidgen of the evidence for the food-sex connection is presented in the table below. These 40-or-so chemical messengers have documented effects on ingestive behavior. They either increase or decrease the amount of food eaten per unit time. The same chemical messengers have clear, repeatable effects on reproductive processes, often including sexual desire and performance. In fact, compounds pushed as anti-obesity drugs by some researchers are being pushed as libido-enhancer by others. Our table reveals information useful for a wide range of scientists, not just those narcissists who feel that all research must have medical application. For more on this topic check out our new preprint now available online (it will be published open access).

TABLE 1. A list of hormones and neuropeptides that influence both food intake and reproduction. From Schneider et al., 2013, When do we eat? Ingestive behavior, survival, and reproductive success, Hormones and Behavior, published online ahead of print.

Central “Orexigenic” Molecules	Ingestive Effects	Reproductive Effects
agouti-related protein (AgRP), HS04, SHU9119 (MCR antagonists)	increases food intake in fish (Schjolden et al., 2009), birds (Strader et al., 2003), and mammals (Rossi et al., 1998; Stark, 1998), and food hoarding in hamsters (Day and Bartness, 2004)	inhibits gonadotropin secretion in fish (Zhang et al., 2012), inhibits LH in the presence of estradiol in female rats (Schioth et al., 2001; Watanobe et al., 1999), stimulates LH in male mammals (Stanley et al., 1999), ablation of AgRP gene restores fertility in ob/ob mice (Wu et al., 2012)
alarin	Increases food intake in male rats (Van Der Kolk et al., 2010)	stimulates LH secretion in castrated male rats (Van Der Kolk et al., 2010)
β-endorphin	increases food intake in fish (de Pedro et al., 1995b) (reviewed in (Lin et al., 2000)), birds (Deviche and Schepers, 1984; Maney and Wingfield, 1998; Yanagita et al., 2008), and rats (Grandison and Guidotti, 1977; McKay et al., 1981)	mediates stress-induced suppression of LH in fish (Ganesh and Chabbi, 2013), birds (Sakurai et al., 1986), inhibits LH secretion and sexual performance (Hughes et al., 1987, 1990; Sirinathsinghji et al., 1983), but might also increase sexual motivation in rats (Mitchell and Stewart, 1990; Torii et al., 1999),
galanin	increases food intake in fish (De Pedro et al., 1995a; Lin et al., 2000; Nelson and Sheridan, 2006; Volkoff et al., 2005) and rats (Kyrkouli et al., 1990)	stimulates LH secretion in birds (Hall and Cheung, 1991),  steroid-primed rats (Sahu et al., 1987)
galanin-like peptide (GALP)	increases food intake in rats (Matsumoto et al., 2002), also decreases food intake in mice (Krasnow et al., 2003)	stimulates LH secretion in male mice and rats and in estradiol-treated female rats (Krasnow et al., 2003; Matsumoto et al., 2001; Uenoyama et al., 2008)
gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA)	might not mediate hyperphagic effects of orexin in fish (Facciolo et al., 2011); increases food intake in rats (Basso and Kelley, 1999)	increases gonadotropin release in fish (Kah et al., 1992); GABA-BR decreases excitability of mouse GnRH-I neurons (Zhang et al., 2009); GABA-AR excitatory for mouse GnRH-I neurons (DeFazio et al., 2002; Moenter and DeFazio, 2005)
melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH)	increases food intake in rats (Presse et al., 1996), but decreases food intake in fish (Shimakura et al., 2008)	inhibits LH secretion in rats (Tsukamura et al., 2000a)
neuropeptide Y (NPY)	increases food intake in fish (de Pedro et al., 2000; Lopez-Patino et al., 1999), frogs (Crespi et al., 2004), snakes (Morris and Crews, 1990), birds (Strader and Buntin, 2001), rats (Stanley and Leibowitz, 1984) and food hoarding in hamsters (Dailey and Bartness, 2009)	increases gonadotropin release in fish (Peng et al., 1993), inhibits steroid biosynthesis in frogs (Beaujean et al., 2002), inhibits sex behavior in snakes (Morris and Crews, 1990), inhibits LH in the absence of estradiol, stimulates LH in the presence of estradiol in rats (Crowley et al., 1985; Sahu et al., 1987) (Sahu et al., 1987), inhibits sex behavior in rats (Ammar et al., 2000)
orexin/hypocretin	increases food intake in fish (Lin et al., 2000; Volkoff et al., 1999; Volkoff et al., 2005), and rats  (Sakurai et al., 1998), but not in birds (da Silva et al., 2008)	inhibits spawning in fish (Hoskins et al., 2008), inhibits LH in rats with little or no estradiol (Furuta et al., 2002), stimulates LH in rats with high  levels of estradiol  (Pu et al., 1998)
gonadotropin inhibiting hormone (GnIH)	increases food intake in birds (Tachibana et al., 2005), mice, sheep, and monkeys (Clarke et al., 2012; Johnson et al., 2007; Tachibana et al., 2005)	inhibits GnRH and LH secretion and sex behavior in fish (Moussavi et al., 2012), birds (Bentley et al., 2006; Satake et al., 2001) and blocks the LH surge in sheep and inhibits LH secretion in rats and female hamsters (Bentley et al., 2006; Johnson et al., 2007; Kriegsfeld et al., 2006; Smith et al., 2008)

Peripheral “Orexigenic” Molecules	Ingestive Effects	Reproductive Effects
corticosteroids	chronically elevated levels increase food intake in fish (Bernier et al., 2004),  amphibians (Crespi et al., 2004), birds (Astheimer et al., 1992), and rats (Hamelink et al., 1994; McLaughlin et al., 1987; Stevenson and Franklin, 1970)	inhibits a wide array of reproductive parameters in fish including parental behavior (Carragher et al., 1989; O’Connor et al., 2009) reviewed by (Milla et al., 2009), inhibits steroid synthesis and spermatogenesis in amphibians (Moore and Zoeller, 1985; Moore and Jessop, 2003), inhibits sex behavior in snakes (Lutterschmidt et al., 2004; Moore and Jessop, 2003), stimulates gonadotropin secretion at low doses in birds (Etches and Cunningham, 1976), inhibits HPG function at chronically high doses in birds (Etches et al., 1984), and mammals (Vreeburg et al., 1988)
ghrelin (gut)	increases food intake in fish (goldfish and tilapia), but decreases food intake in rainbow trout (Jonsson, 2013; Jonsson et al., 2010), decreases food intake in birds (Kaiya et al., 2009), increases food intake in rats and mice (Tschop et al., 2000; Wren et al., 2000) and food hoarding in Siberian hamsters (Keen-Rhinehart and Bartness, 2005)	stimulates LH release from fish (Grey et al., 2010), inhibits GnRH, LH secretion and sex behavior in rats and mice (Fernandez-Fernandez et al., 2004; Furuta et al., 2001; Shah and Nyby, 2010)
insulin (pancreas)	chronically elevated levels increase body weight, adiposity, and food intake in birds (Nir and Levy, 1973), rats (Booth and Brookover, 1968; Friedman, 1977; Friedman et al., 1982; Houpt, 1974)	systemic treatment inhibits LH secretion at doses that increase food intake in hamsters not allowed to overeat (Wade et al., 1991), inhibits LH secretion in sheep treated peripherally with saline but not with glucose (Clarke et al., 1990)
motilin (gut)	increases food intake in fasted rats (Garthwaite, 1985)	inhibits LH secretion in rats (Tsukamura et al., 2000b)
progesterone (gonads, adrenals)	reverses the weight reducing effects of estradiol on body weight and food intake in rodents (Hervey and Hervey, 1966, 1969; Zucker et al., 1972)	synergizes with estradiol to stimulate female sexual performance in rats (Dempsey et al., 1936), enhances estradiol feedback on LH in female rats (Chappell and Levine, 2000), mimics testosterone in male rats (Witt et al., 1995)
testosterone (gonads, adrenals)	increases food intake and growth in rats (Siegel et al., 1981)	stimulates sexual motivation in females (de Jonge et al., 1986; Everitt and Herbert, 1970) and sexual performance in male rats (Davidson, 1966; Davidson and Bloch, 1969)

Central “Anorectic” Molecules	Ingestive Effects	Reproductive Effects
α-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH), melanotan- II (MT-II), PT-141	decreases food intake in fish (Kang et al., 2011; Schjolden et al., 2009), amphibians (Carpenter and Carr, 1996), birds (Kawakami et al., 2000; Tachibana et al., 2007),  and rats (Vergoni et al., 1986), and food hoarding in Siberian  hamsters (Keen-Rhinehart and Bartness, 2007a; Shimizu et al., 1989)	enhances electric organ discharge in  electric fish (Markham et al., 2009), Stimulates LH secretion and sex behavior in rats (Alde and Celis, 1980; Thody et al., 1981)
Cocaine and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART)	decreases food intake in fish (Volkoff et al., 2005), birds (Tachibana et al., 2003), rats (Kristensen et al., 1998)	stimulates GnRH secretion in rats (Lebrethon et al., 2000; Parent et al., 2000)
Cholecystokinin (CCK)	decreases food intake in fish (Himick and Peter, 1994; Volkoff et al., 2005), birds (Tachibana et al., 2012), rats (Gibbs et al., 1973) and food hoarding in Siberian hamsters (Bailey and Dela-Fera, 1995; Figlewicz et al., 1989; Teubner and Bartness, 2010)	stimulates GnRH and LH secretion in rats (Ichimaru et al., 2003; Kimura et al., 1983)CCK in the medial preoptic areas is required for estradiol-induced lordosis in rats (Dornan et al., 1989; Holland et al., 1997)
Corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH)	decreases food intake in fish (De Pedro et al., 1993; Matsuda et al., 2008), amphibians (Crespi et al., 2004), birds (Denbow et al., 1999; Furuse et al., 1997), rats (Heinrichs and Richard, 1999; Levine et al., 1983; Morley and Levine, 1982; Negri et al., 1985) and food hoarding in rats (Cabanac and Richard, 1995) reviewed by (Carr, 2002)	inhibits spawning in fish (Mousa and Mousa, 2006), inhibits LH secretion and lordosis in rats (Olster and Ferin, 1987) and sex behavior in Syrian hamsters (Jones et al., 2002)
Dopamine (DA)	decreases food intake in fish (Leal et al., 2013), rats (Heffner et al., 1977), increases food hoarding in rats (Borker and Mascarenhas, 1991; Kelley and Stinus, 1985), and reward (Wise, 2004)	inhibits gonadotropin secretion in fish (Omeljaniuk et al., 1989), stimulates sexual arousal, motivation and reward in birds (Cornil et al., 2005), rats and hamsters (Agmo and Picker, 1990; Meisel and Mullins, 2006)
Glucagon-like peptide (GLP-I)	decreases food intake in fish (Silverstein et al., 2001), birds (Tachibana et al., 2006), rats (Turton et al., 1996)	stimulates LH secretion (Beak et al., 1998)
Gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH I or II)	decreases food intake in fish (Hoskins et al., 2008; Nishiguchi et al., 2012), and female musk shrews (Kauffman and Rissman, 2004b)	stimulates LH secretion in fish (Moussavi et al., 2012), birds (Chowdhury and Yoshimura, 2004), stimulates LH secretion and sex behavior in amphibians and reptiles (Alderete et al., 1980; Licht et al., 1984), rats and sheep and sex behavior in shrews and mice (Kauffman and Rissman, 2004a; Kauffman et al., 2005) (Temple et al., 2003) (Moss and McCann, 1975) (Clarke and Cummins, 1982)
Insulin-like Growth Factor -1 (IGF-I in CNS)	ICV treatment decreases food intake in diabetic, but not normal rats (Lu et al., 2001), required for post-fast hyperphagia in rats (Todd et al., 2007)	restores LH surge amplitude in middle-aged rats (Todd et al., 2010), required for the LH surge, estrous behavior, estrous cycles in rats (Etgen and Acosta-Martinez, 2003; Quesada and Etgen, 2002; Todd et al., 2007), and for sex behavior in rats (Etgen and Acosta-Martinez, 2003)
Kisspeptin	decreases food intake in mice (Stengel et al., 2011)	stimulates GnRH and LH secretion in fish (Moussavi et al., 2012; Tena-Sempere et al., 2012), stimulates testicular expression of ER-a in frogs (Chianese et al., 2013), rats (Gottsch et al., 2004; Irwig et al., 2004)
Norepinephrine	decreases food intake in birds (Denbow, 1983) and stimulates food intake in rats (Ritter and Epstein, 1975)	inhibits LH secretion in rats (Iwata et al., 2011), stimulates sex behavior in birds (Cornil et al., 2005) and rats (Nock and Feder, 1979)
Oxytocin	decreases food intake in birds (Jonaidi et al., 2003), rats (Olson et al., 1991)	stimulates GnRH and LH secretion sex behavior in rats (Rettori et al., 1997; Whitman and Albers, 1995)
Secretin	decreases food intake in  rats (Cheng et al., 2011a)	stimulates LH secretion in rats (Babu and Vijayan, 1983)
Serotonin (5HT)	decreases food intake in birds (Denbow et al., 1982), rats (Blundell, 1977)	stimulates LH in the presence of estradiol in rats (Coen and MacKinnon, 1979) Inhibits LH secretion in the absence of estradiol in rats (Coen et al., 1980) (Koh et al., 1984)
Thyrotropin releasing hormone	decreases food intake in rats (Vijayan and McCann, 1977) and Siberian hamsters (Steward et al., 2003)	stimulates LH secretion in pituitary in vitro not in vivo in rats (Fujihara and Shiino, 1983), and indirectly by effects on thyroid hormones in rats (Barrett et al., 2007)
Urocortin	decreases food intake in fish, amphibians, birds, and rats (Spina et al., 1996)	stimulates LH secretion in ewes (Holmberg et al., 2001), inhibits LH secretion in rats (Li et al., 2005; Nemoto et al., 2010), directly inhibits Leydig cell function in rats (Rivier, 2008)

Peripheral “Anorectic” Molecules	Ingestive Effects	Reproductive Effects
Adiponectin (adipocytes)	decreases food intake in rats (Bassi et al., 2012), increases food intake in mice (Kubota et al., 2007), decreases body weight and increases energy expenditure, insulin sensitivity, and ffa oxidation without effect on food intake in rats (Fruebis et al., 2001; Qi et al., 2004)	implicated in embryo implantation and fetal development in pigs and women (Palin et al., 2012), inhibits ovarian steroidogenesis in cows (Lagaly et al., 2008), inhibits GnRH and LH in rats and in GnRH cell cultures (Cheng et al., 2011b; Lu et al., 2008)
Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)	decreases food intake in rats (Vergoni et al., 1986)	stimulated LH secretion in female rats inhibits LH secretion in male rats (indirect via adrenals) (Mann et al., 1985; Putnam et al., 1991)
Bombesin (gut)	decreases food intake in fish (Volkoff et al., 2005), birds (Savory and Hodgkiss, 1984; Tachibana et al., 2010), and rats (Gibbs et al., 1979)	stimulates LH secretion in rats (Babu and Vijayan, 1983)
Cholecystokinin (gut)	decreases food intake in fish (Volkoff et al., 2005), birds (Savory and Hodgkiss, 1984), and hoarding in Siberian hamsters (Gibbs et al., 1973; Qian et al., 1999; Teubner and Bartness, 2010)	simulates LH secretion in rats (Perera et al., 1993); Inhibits lordosis duration in rats (Mendelson and Gorzalka, 1984), but see central effects in Table 1.1
Estradiol (gonads, adrenals, adipocytes, brain)	decreases body weight and food intake in fish (Leal et al., 2009), lizards (Shanbhag and Prasad, 1992), obese but not lean hens (Jaccoby et al., 1995; Jaccoby et al., 1996), rats (Nunez et al., 1980; Roepke et al., 2010; Roy and Wade, 1977; Zucker, 1969) and food hoarding in Syrian hamsters (Klingerman et al., 2010)	stimulates sexual receptivity and vitellogenesis and has negative feedback on LH in fish, frogs, lizards and birds (Chakraborty and Burmeister, 2009; Cheng, 1973; Crews, 1975; Gavaud, 1986; Gibbins and Robinson, 1982a, b; Licht et al., 1985; Liley, 1972; Mason and Adkins, 1976; McCreery and Licht, 1984; Redshaw et al., 1969; Shanbhag and Prasad, 1992; Yu et al., 1981), and stimulates LH surges in female rats (Chazal et al., 1974) and female sex behavior in rats (Dempsey et al., 1936; Powers, 1970), increases courtship and sexual behaviors in hamsters (Ciaccio and Lisk, 1973; Ciaccio et al., 1979; Takahashi et al., 1985)
Insulin (ICV treatment)	decreases food intake in rats and baboons (Chavez et al., 1995; Woods et al., 1979)	stimulates LH pulses in rats, pigs, and diabetic sheep and non diabetic ovariectomized sheep (Bucholtz et al., 2000; Cox et al., 1987; Daniel et al., 2000; Kovacs et al., 2003; Miller et al., 1995), inhibits LH in ad libitum-fed ovariectomized lambs (Hileman et al., 1993)
Insulin-like growth factor	increases body weight gain at superphysiological concentrations (Gruaz et al., 1997)	does not accelerate reproductive development in female rats (Gruaz et al., 1997)
Leptin (adipocytes, liver)	decreases body weight, adiposity, and food intake in fish (Crespi and Denver, 2006; Murashita et al., 2008), and mice (Campfield et al., 1995; Halaas et al., 1995; Pelleymounter et al., 1995) and food hoarding in Syrian hamsters (Buckley and Schneider, 2003) while increasing energy expenditure	mammalian leptin increases gonadotropin secretion in fish (Peyon et al., 2003; Peyon et al., 2001), delays the summertime regression of the testes in lizards (Putti et al., 2009), delays fasting-induced cessation of egg laying, follicular regression, and follicle wall apoptosis in chickens (Paczoska-Eliasiewicz et al., 2003), reverses the effects of metabolic challenges on gonadotropin secretion in mice (Ahima et al., 1996; Barash et al., 1996), estrous cycles, and steroid-induced sex behavior (the latter only in ad libitum fed female hamsters) (Schneider et al., 2007; Schneider et al., 1997; Wade et al., 1997)
Resistin	transient decreases in food intake in rats (Tovar et al., 2005)	promotes ovarian steroid secretion in rats (Maillard et al., 2011)