Common chemical disrupts reproductive biology



Meanwhile, it remains unclear what exactly DEHP does to the body and how much exposure can be considered safe. To help answer those questions, Monica Colaiácovo, professor of genetics in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School, and colleagues turned to Caenorhabditis elegans, worms that are a common model organism for studying human genetics and biology.

The findings, reported in PLoS Genetics, show that DEHP disrupts meiosis, the type of cell division that results in eggs and sperm, in several ways, leading to defects during egg formation and very early embryonic development. “These are completely new findings and hopefully will shed some light as to how this phthalate impacts human reproductive health,” said Colaiácovo, who is senior author of the paper.



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