BACKGROUND A very large proportion of the literature on the endocrine disruptors categorized as anti-androgens deals with phthalates, which are produced in large amounts for use as plastic emollients and additives. In this review, we bring together and analyse work on the effects of phthalates in animals and humans at different stages of their development to assess whether or not their possible anti-androgenic properties represent a significant threat to human health. METHODS The database PubMed was systematically searched for all English language articles until July 2013 in each subject area discussed. RESULTS We provide an up-to-date exhaustive, comparative and critical assessment of both in vivo and in vitro studies undertaken to explore the effects of phthalates on the human testis from fetal life to adulthood. These results are compared and discussed in the light of the key data reported in the literature for mice and rats. CONCLUSIONS The current literature highlights the fact that (i) there is a huge difference between the number of studies performed in animals and in humans, with many fewer for humans; (ii) there are differences in the way rats, mice, primates and humans respond to phthalates, for reasons that need to be further explored; (iii) more work is required to clarify the contradictions, in the few existing human epidemiological studies at all stages of development, which may be partly explained by varying methods of exposure assessment; (iv) in accordance with recent findings in rodents, it cannot be excluded that transgenerational effects of phthalates and/or epigenetic changes exist in humans; (v) a number of methodological limitations need to be solved for the in vitro and xenografting models using human fetal testis to fulfil their 'missing link' role between epidemiological studies in humans and rodent models; and (vi) epidemiological and in vitro studies generally converge sufficiently to conclude that phthalate anti-androgenicity is plausible in adult men.

中文翻译：

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从胎儿生命到成年，人类睾丸对邻苯二甲酸盐的内分泌敏感性的严格评估。

背景技术被归类为抗雄激素的内分泌干扰物的很大一部分文献涉及邻苯二甲酸酯，邻苯二甲酸酯是大量生产的，用作塑料润肤剂和添加剂。在这篇综述中，我们汇集并分析了邻苯二甲酸盐在动物和人类发展的不同阶段所产生的影响，以评估其可能的抗雄激素特性是否对人类健康构成重大威胁。方法截至2013年7月，系统地在PubMed的数据库中搜索所有讨论的英语领域的英语文章。结果我们提供了体内，体外研究的最新，详尽，比较和重要的评估，以探讨邻苯二甲酸酯对胎儿生命至成年对人睾丸的影响。根据有关小鼠和大鼠的文献报道的关键数据，对这些结果进行了比较和讨论。结论当前的文献强调了这样一个事实：（i）在动物和人类中进行的研究数量之间存在巨大差异，而人类的研究数量则少得多；（ii）大鼠，小鼠，灵长类动物和人类对邻苯二甲酸盐的反应方式有所不同，原因有待进一步探讨；（iii）在发展的各个阶段，在少数现有的人类流行病学研究中，需要做更多的工作来弄清矛盾，这可能部分由不同的暴露评估方法来解释；（iv）根据啮齿类动物的最新发现，不能排除人类存在邻苯二甲酸酯的跨代效应和/或表观遗传变化；（v）需要解决使用人类胎儿睾丸的体外和异种移植模型的方法学局限性，以实现其在人类流行病学研究与啮齿动物模型之间的“缺失联系”作用；（vi）流行病学和体外研究通常能充分融合，得出结论，在成年男性中，邻苯二甲酸盐的抗雄激素作用是合理的。