No. I refuse. I will not explain this paper in simple language. Maybe in a couple of years when I have understood it myself, a bit, then I could have a stab at doing so.
I think it says that a specific flame retardant can affect basic development through embryo stages of vertebrates. That could be you and me.
Don't forget that we also have a wodge of papers about Bisphenol A and its endocrine disrupting capabilities - and that has been used in plastic bottles and tin cans.
Tetrabromobisphenol A disrupts vertebrate development via thyroid hormone signaling pathway in a developmental stage-dependent manner
Yinfeng Zhang , Wei Xu , Qinqin Lou , Yuanyuan Li , Yaxian Zhao , Wuji Wei , Zhanfen Qin , Huili Wang , and Jianzhong Li
Environ. Sci. Technol., Just Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1021/es502366g
Publication Date (Web): June 25, 2014
Copyright © 2014 American Chemical Society
Abstract
Data concerning effects of tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) on thyroid hormone (TH)-dependent vertebrate development have been limited, although TBBPA has been demonstrated in vitro to disrupt the TH signaling pathway at the transcriptional level. In this study, we investigated the effects of TBBPA on T3-induced and spontaneous Xenopus laevis metamorphosis, which share many similarities with TH-dependent development in higher vertebrates. In a 6-day T3-induced metamorphosis assay using pre-metamorphic tadpoles, 101000 nM TBBPA exhibited inhibitory effects on T3-induced expression of TH-response genes and morphological changes in a concentration-dependent manner, with a weak stimulatory action on tadpole development and TH-response gene expression in the absence of T3 induction. In a spontaneous metamorphosis assay, we further found that TBBPA promoted tadpole development from stage 51 to 56 (pre- and pro-metamorphic stages), but inhibited metamorphic development from stage 57 to 66 (metamorphic climax). These results strongly show that TBBPA, even at low concentrations, disrupts TH-dependent development in a developmental stage-dependent manner, i.e., TBBPA exhibits an antagonistic activity at the developmental stages when animals have high endogenous TH levels, whereas it acts as an agonist at the developmental stages when animals have low endogenous TH levels. Our study highlights the adverse influences of TBBPA on TH-dependent development in vertebrates.
pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.102...
Full paper available for free if you sign up to the site - for free.
Wiki explains a bit about TBBPA here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetra...
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