In vitro assessment of the capacity of pesticides to act as agonists/antagonists of the thyroid hormone nuclear receptors.

Several in vitro tests, including transcriptome analysis of neural cells, were performed to assess the capacity of 33 pesticides to act as thyroid hormone disruptors (THD). Although some pesticides elicit a cellular response, which interferes with thyroid hormone signaling, we found no evidence that they can act as receptor agonists or antagonists. We conclude that the nuclear receptors of thyroid hormone are not common targets of THD, and that pesticide neurodevelopmental toxicity is not explained by a general alteration of neural cell response to thyroid hormone.