Chair:

Almudena Veiga-Lopez, University of Illinois at Chicago

Co-Chair:

Rita Strakovsky, Michigan State University

Primary Endorser: Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Specialty Section


Endorser(s): Exposure Specialty Section


Endorser(s): Women in Toxicology Special Interest Group

Pregnancy is considered among the most vulnerable lifestages, for both the mother and the child. Despite being a critical bridge between the maternal exposome and fetal development, the placenta is a severely understudied organ. Led by Dr. Almudena Veiga-Lopez and Dr. Rita Strakovsky, this session features a diversity of early career, mid-career, and well-established investigators who come from federal and academic institutions and have expertise in epidemiology, animal models, and cell and molecular endpoints. These investigators will highlight the importance of the placenta as a target of chemical exposures, with certain chemicals (organophosphates and pyrethroids) pointing to the placenta as a chemical reservoir since they accumulate in the placenta and fetal compartment to a higher degree than that of the maternal liver. The session will feature new and exciting research related to the impacts of various chemical exposures on placental endpoints. Specifically, it will bring a unique and a balanced perspective of the effects of environmental exposures on a plethora of placental functions, including vascular calcification and elasticity, glucose and tryptophan metabolism, cellular differentiation and invasion, and immune function. These functional endpoints are carefully mapped using in vitro, animal, and population studies that provide translation across basic science and human-based studies. Notably, these studies will discuss robust toxicology study designs, such as inclusion of eight longitudinal measures in human pregnancy cohorts, air pollution mouse models, and immune tolerance mouse models. State-of-the-art technologies such as single-cell profiling also will be discussed in the context of heavy metals exposures. From an exposure standpoint, the talks will discuss doses in the context of human-relevant exposures and cover a broad range of chemical classes, including short- (phthalates and bisphenols), medium- (trichloroethylene and titanium dioxide nanoparticles), and long-lived (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, organophosphates, pyrethroids, and heavy metals) chemicals. Several talks also will present the effects of emerging and replacement chemicals (e.g., phthalate replacements, tetrabromobisphenol A, and replacement per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) on placental function. Several of these studies will highlight sex-specific effects as well as direct connections to common placental disorders, such as preeclampsia and miscarriage.