Metabolism Disrupting Chemicals: Understanding Their Role in Metabolic Disease

Dear Colleagues,

Jerry Heindel, on behalf of Healthy Environment and Endocrine Disruptor Strategies (www.HEEDS.org ) and Giancarlo Panzica on behalf of Italian Group for the Study of Neuromorphology (G.I.S.N., https://www.gisn.it ) propose to develop a Special Issue of Metabolism focused on the importance of Metabolism Disrupting Chemicals in metabolic disease.

Metabolic diseases, type 2 diabetes, liver diseases, and obesity are all increasing across the globe. They are multifactorial diseases that are controlled by many internal and external factors. The control of energy metabolism is a central event for the survival of an organism and the alterations that could lead to metabolic diseases. This control operates at two levels, in the periphery (e.g., liver, fat tissue, GI tract, pancreas, muscle and other organs) and the brain (e.g., the neuroendocrine hypothalamic system and other regions).

The focus of the metabolism field has been on genetics, diet, and exercise in the etiology of these diseases. We now know that some natural and synthetic chemicals present in the environment, named Metabolism Disrupting Chemicals (MDCs) or simply metabolism disruptors, can target the endocrine systems at the basis of the control of energy metabolism and therefore likely play an important role in causing metabolic diseases.

Publishing in a special issue with a focus on both original research and reviews on the role of MDCs in the etiology of metabolic diseases will improve the impact of the research.

The topics that can be covered in this Special Issue include but are not limited to:

Any aspect of metabolic diseases, type 2 diabetes, liver disease, or obesity with a focus on the role and/or mechanisms of MDCs.

Original research can focus on in vitro, computational, animal or human/epidemiology studies. Animal and human/epidemiology studies can focus on developmental or adult exposures in a single generation or across generations, single chemicals or mixtures of chemicals or the interaction of chemicals and nutrition. They can focus on developing data for new MDCs, the mechanism for a known or mixture of known MDCs.

Reviews can focus on the importance of MDCs in any metabolic diseases individually or in combination, or any subset of the research. For example, articles could focus on the hypothalamic control of metabolism, the importance of MDCs and the microbiome, the interaction between MDCs and nutrition, the role of exosomes in MDC action, importance of transgenerational inheritance of any of the metabolic diseases.

Manuscripts dealing with challenges/solutions to the acceptance of the role of MDCs in metabolic diseases by basic scientists, clinicians, regulators, and the public, as well as the challenges or research needed, for example, are highly desired.

Other topics may be acceptable. If in doubt, contact us.

Prof. Dr. Giancarlo Panzica
Dr. Jerry Heindel
Prof. Dr. Stefano Gotti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Metabolites is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

•  metabolism disruptors
•  endocrine disruptors,
•  obesity
•  type 2 diabetes
•  fatty liver diseases,
•  fat cells
•  transgenerational inheritance
•  homeostatic control of metabolism
•  hedonic control of metabolism
•  mixtures
•  in vitro, animal models, human basic, clinical or epidemiology studies
•  brain circuits target of metabolism disrupting chemicals