Molecular Mechanisms of Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals and Emerging-Pollutant Toxicity in Human Reproduction: From Xenobiotic Exposure to Fertility Impairment and Reproductive Carcinogenesis.

Narrative review of molecular toxicology mechanisms linking emerging pollutants to fertility and cancer

“This review argues that they are two latencies of a single molecular toxicology.”

Human populations and experimental models (mice, non-human primates, aquatic models)

“Infertility affects approximately one in six adults of reproductive age worldwide, and although its overall prevalence has remained relatively stable, converging evidence implicates the chemical environment as a modifiable contributor to declining human fecundity [1,2,3].”

Structurally diverse pollutants converge on shared molecular lesions including HPG axis disruption, receptor interference, and oxidative stress

“They nonetheless converge on a limited repertoire of molecular lesions.”

Micro- and nanoplastics act as both toxicants and vectors for adsorbed co-contaminants, contributing to reproductive toxicity

“These are micro- and nanoplastics, which act as both toxicants and vectors for adsorbed co-contaminants, and pharmaceutical and personal-care residues sustained by continuous wastewater input.”

The same molecular hubs that impair fertility also drive hormone-dependent reproductive carcinogenesis over longer latencies

“The same receptor, oxidative and genotoxic hubs drive hormone-dependent reproductive carcinogenesis over longer latencies.”

Existing syntheses often review fertility and cancer separately, lack evidence grading, and experimental designs are often single-compound and single-generation

“First, fertility impairment and reproductive carcinogenesis are reviewed separately, although the molecular lesions underlying them are largely shared and differ principally in latency.”