Endocrine disrupting effects on morphological synaptic plasticity

• Endocrine disrupting chemicals act in the brain, as well as in peripheral tissues. • Endocrine disrupting chemicals have distinct target organs, distinct action mechanisms. • With the already known more than 4000 endocrine disrupting chemicals, clarification of their action mechanisms is pivotal to health. • One of the central target areas of endocrine disruptors is the synaptic morphology and function. Neural regulation of the homeostasis depends on healthy synaptic function. Adaptation of synaptic functions to physiological needs manifests in various forms of synaptic plasticity (SP), regulated by the normal hormonal regulatory circuits. During the past several decades, the hormonal regulation of animal and human organisms have become targets of thousands of chemicals that have the potential to act as agonists or antagonists of the endogenous hormones. As the action mechanism of these endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) came into the focus of research, a growing number of studies suggest that one of the regulatory avenues of hormones, the morphological form of SP, may well be a neural mechanism affected by EDCs. The present review discusses known and potential effects of some of the best known EDCs on morphological synaptic plasticity (MSP). We highlight molecular mechanisms altered by EDCs and indicate the growing need for more research in this area of neuroendocrinology.