ArticleToxicology and applied pharmacology2012
Atrazine acts as an endocrine disrupter by inhibiting cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase-4.
Article in Toxicology and applied pharmacology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 134 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review on the evaluation of endocrine-disrupting chemicals as potential neurotoxins during zebrafish development.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Pooled it
- In vitro models for testicular steroidogenesis: current status and future perspectives.Archives of toxicology · 2026Review
- Prenatal and postnatal atrazine-induced endocrine and ovarian chemical biotransformation protein disruption in offspring.Journal of the Endocrine Society · 2026Article
- Novel mechanisms of atrazine endocrine disruption: an integrated approach reveals progesterone and glucocorticoid receptor targeting.BMC pharmacology & toxicology · 2026Article
- A Review on the Effects of Atrazine on Male Rat Reproductive System Cytoarchitecture, Steroidogenesis and Oxidative Pathway.Journal of molecular histology · 2026Review
- Acute exposure to groundwater contaminants mixture of nitrate, atrazine and imidacloprid impacts growth kinetics of poultry cecal microbiomes and significantly decreases Caco-2 cell viability.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Monte Carlo Simulation of Pesticide Toxicity for Rainbow Trout (Journal of xenobiotics · 2025Article
- Effects of atrazine on the HPG and HPA axes and steroidogenic pathways in females: relevance to reproductive function and breast, ovarian and uterine cancer.Frontiers in toxicology · 2025Review
- Astragaloside IV ameliorates atrazine-induced male reproductive toxicity: anFrontiers in toxicology · 2025Article
- Curcumin as an antidote to atrazine on estrogen homeostasis and beyond: mechanistic insights from a targeted literature review.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Review
- The ENDOMIX perspective: how everyday chemical mixtures impact human health and reproduction by targeting the immune system†.Biology of reproduction · 2024Review
- A review on toxic effects of pesticides in Zebrafish,Toxicology reports · 2024Review
- Profiling the endocrine-disrupting properties of triazines, triazoles, and short-chain PFAS.Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology · 2024Article
- Association of Atrazine-Induced Overexpression of Aldo-Keto-Reductase 1C2 (AKR1C2) with Hypoandrogenism and Infertility: An Experimental Study in Male Wistar Rat.Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) · 2024Article
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- Exposure to Pesticides and Breast Cancer in an Agricultural Region in Brazil.Environmental science & technology · 2024Article
- An Updated Evaluation of Atrazine-Cancer Incidence Associations among Pesticide Applicators in the Agricultural Health Study Cohort.Environmental health perspectives · 2024Article
- Atrazine Toxicity: The Possible Role of Natural Products for Effective Treatment.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Atrazine, one of the most commonly used herbicides worldwide, acts as an endocrine disruptor, but the mechanism of its action has not been characterized. In this study, we show that atrazine rapidly increases cAMP levels in cultured rat pituitary and testicular Leydig cells in a concentration-dependent manner, but less effectively than 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine, a competitive non-specific inhibitor of phosphodiesterases (PDEs). In forskolin (an activator of adenylyl cyclase)- and probenecid (an inhibitor of cyclic nucleotide transporters)-treated cells, but not in 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine-treated cells, atrazine further increased cAMP levels, indicating that inhibition of PDEs accounts for accumulation of cAMP. In contrast to cAMP, atrazine did not alter cGMP levels, further indicating that it inhibits cAMP-specific PDEs. Atrazine-induced changes in cAMP levels were sufficient to stimulate prolactin release in pituitary cells and androgen production in Leydig cells, indicating that it acts as an endocrine disrupter both in cells that secrete by exocytosis of prestored hormones and in cells that secrete by de novo hormone synthesis. Rolipram abolished the stimulatory effect of atrazine on cAMP release in both cell types, suggesting that it acts as an inhibitor of PDE4s, isoforms whose mRNA transcripts dominate in pituitary and Leydig cells together with mRNA for PDE8A. In contrast, immortalized lacto-somatotrophs showed low expression of these mRNA transcripts and several fold higher cAMP levels compared to normal pituitary cells, and atrazine was unable to further increase cAMP levels. These results indicate that atrazine acts as a general endocrine disrupter by inhibiting cAMP-specific PDE4s.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.