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Updated: Aug 1, 2025

Long-term Behavioral and Reproductive Consequences of Embryonic Exposure to Low-dose Toxicants
Published on: March 6, 2018
Effects of Endocrine-Disrupting Heavy Metals on Human Health
Dongling Liu1, Qianhan Shi2, Cuiqing Liu2
1School of Basic Medical Science, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, 548 Binwen Road, Hangzhou 310053, China.
Abstract:
Heavy metals play an important endocrine-disrupting role in the health consequences. However, the endocrine-disrupting mechanism of heavy metals is unclear. There are long-term and low-level metal/element exposure scenes for the human body in real life. Therefore, animal models exposed to high doses of heavy metals may not provide key information to elucidate the underlying pathogeny of human diseases. This review collects current knowledge regarding the endocrine-disrupting roles of heavy metals such as lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and manganese (Mn), summarizes the possible molecular mechanisms of these endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), and briefly evaluates their endocrine toxicity on animals and humans.
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