Recent Publications

The following is a list of my recent publications with links to pdf files.


Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology 242 (2005) 10–15

Zoeller RT (2005) Environmental chemicals as thyroid hormone analogues: New studies indicate that thyroid hormone receptors are targets of industrial chemicals?

Thyroid hormone (TH) is essential for normal brain development, but the specific actions of TH differ across developmental time and brain region. These actions of TH are mediated largely by a combination of thyroid hormone receptor (TR) isoforms that exhibit specific temporal and spatial patterns of expression during animal and human brain development.
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Endocrinology 146(2):607-612.

Zoeller RT, Bansal R, Parris C (2005). Bisphenol-A, an environmental contaminant that acts as a thyroid hormone receptor antagonist in vitro, increases serum thyroxine, and alters RC3/Neurogranin expression in the developing rat brain.

This work shows that a low dose of bisphenol-A, known best as an estrogen, can produce effects in the developing rat that look very similar to "thyroid resistance syndrome" in which serum T4 is elevated in the face of inappropriately normal serum TSH, but that some tissues (e.g., the hippocampus) respond to the elevated thyroid hormone levels.
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Journal of Neuroendocrinology 16: 809-818.

Zoeller RT, and Rovet J (2004). Timing of Thyroid Hormone Action in the Developing Brain: Clinical Observations and Experimental Findings.

This is a comprehensive review of the literature that supports the hypothesis that thyroid hormone exerts different actions in the developing brain at different times during development.
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Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology

Letters to the Editor

Two letters to the Editor are combined in this PDF with the original papers to which they are directed and the original authors' comments. These are published in December edition [40(3), 2004]. In both cases, the focus is on theoretical aspects of thyroid toxicology.
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Thyroid

Zoeller RT, Bigelow C, and Rovet J (2004). Letters to the Editor: Lack of a relation between human neonatal thyroxine and pediatric neurobehavioral disorders: neonatal total thyroxine is not a good proxy measure of maternal thyroid hormone insufficiency.

This PDF file contains the Letter to the Editor, the Authors' response, and the original paper published by Soldin et al. in Thyroid
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Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 89(7):3114-3116.

Zoeller RT (2004). Editorial: Local Control of the Timing of Thyroid Hormone Action in the Developing Human Brain.

This file contains the editorial and the paper upon which it is based - by Kester et al.
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Thyroid

Heindel J.J. and Zoeller RT. (2003). Guest Editorial: Thyroid Hormone and Brain Development: Translating Molecular Mechanisms to Population Risk

This is an introduction to a special issue of Thyroid that contains review papers presented at a symposium of the same name on Sept 23-25, 2002 at the NIEHS.
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Environmental Health Perspectives

Gauger KJ, Kato Y, Haraguchi K, Lehmler HJ, Robertson LW, Bansal R, Zoeller RT. (2004). Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) exert thyroid hormone-like effects in the fetal rat brain but do not bind to thyroid hormone receptors

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Journal of Clinical Investigation 111: 954-957.

Zoeller RT. (2003). Commentary: Transplacental thyroxine and fetal brain development.

This is an analysis of an excellent paper published in this edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation - Lavado-Autric et al. Early maternal hypothyroxinemia alters histogenesis and cerebral cortex cytoarchitecture of the progeny. JCI 111:1073-1082 (2003).
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Environmental Health Perspectives 111(12): A628

Zoeller RT. (2003). Guest Editorial: Thyroid Toxicology and Brain Development: Should We Think Differently?

Plus, letter to the editor and response published in EHP 112(5):A269.
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Environmental Health Perspectives 110 (Suppl 3): 355-361.

Zoeller RT, Dowling ALS, Herzig CTA, Iannacone EA, Gauger KJ, and Bansal R. (2002). Thyroid Hormone, Brain Development, and the Environment.

This is a review of the field of thyroid hormone action and brain development and the impact of environmental factors, especially PCBs, on this process
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Risk Analysis 23(1): 143-162.

Zoeller RT (2003) Challenges confronting risk analysis of potential thyroid toxicants.

Screening and testing for potential thyroid toxicants using endpoints of thyroid function, including circulating levels of thyroid hormones and thyrotropic, will not capture toxicants that directly interfere with thyroid hormone action on the receptor. The goals of the present review are to provide a critique of the literature focused on thyroid hormone and brain development as it relates to testing and evaluating thyroid toxicants, and to propose possible solutions to this perceived dilemma.
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Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology 186: 49-59.

Iannacone EA, Yan AW, Gauger KJ, Dowling AL, Zoeller RT. (2002) Thyroid hormone exerts site-specific effects on SRC-1 and NCoR expression selectively in the neonatal rat brain.

Thyroid hormone regulates the expression of SRC-1 and NCoR in the developing brain, but this effect cannot explain the change in thyroid hormone sensitivity that occurs during periods of thyriod hormone insufficiency.
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Developmental Brain Research

Yang J, and Zoeller RT. (2002) Differential display identifies neuroendocrine-specific protein-A (NSP-A) and interferon-inducible protein 10 (IP-10) as ethanol-responsive genes in the fetal rat brain.

Fetal alcohol exposure is the most common nonhereditary cause of mental retardation in the western world. We used a variety of techniques to determine that NSP-A and IP-10 are ethanol responsive in the fetal rat brain.
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L.W. Robertson and L.G. Hansen, Eds. Univ Kentucky Press, Lexington. p 265-272.

Zoeller RT. 2001 Polychlorinated Biphenyls as Disruptors of Thyroid Hormone Action. In: PCBs: Recent Advances in Environmental Toxicology and Health Effects

This is a review paper focused on the impact of PCBs on thyroid hormone signaling.
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Endocrinology 142(1): 390-399.

Dowling ALS, Iannacone EI, and Zoeller RT (2001) Maternal Hypothyroidism Selectively Affects the Expression of Neuroendocrine-Specific Protein-A mRNA in the Fetal Rat Brain.

This paper documents that it is maternal hypothyroidism that affects the expression of the gene, NSP-A, in the embryonic day 16 fetal rat cortex.
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NeuroToxicology 21(6):935-945.

Zoeller RT and Crofton KM (2000) Thyroid Hormone Action in Fetal Brain Development and Potential for Disruption by Environmental Chemicals.

This is a review paper focused on the toxicology of the thyroid system and the potential that different kinds of chemicals may have for disrupting thyroid hormone action, and the strategies that are employed to evaluate this disruption.
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Molecular Brain Research 82: 126-132.

Dowling ALS and Zoeller RT (2000) Thyroid Hormone of Maternal Origin Regulates the Expression of RC3/Neurogranin mRNA in the Fetal Rat Brain.

RC3/Neurogranin is a well known thyroid hormone-responsive gene in the adult brain. This paper describes work showing that RC3/Neurogranin is expressed in the early fetal brain, and that its expression is affected by maternal thyroid hormone insufficiency.
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Journal of Neuroscience 20(6): 2255-2265.

Dowling ALS, Martz GU, Leonard JL, Zoeller RT (2000) Acute Changes in Maternal Thyroid Hormone Induce Rapid and Transient Changes in Specific Gene Expression in Fetal Rat Brain.

This paper describes the use of differential cloning techniques which identify a number of thyroid hormone-responsive genes in the fetal cortex.
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Endocrinology 141(1): 181-189.

Zoeller RT, Dowling ALS, and Vas AA (2000) Developmental Exposure to Polychlorinated Biphenyls Exerts Thyroid Hormone-Like Effects on the Expression of RC3/Neurogranin and Myelin Basic Protein Messenger Ribonucleic Acids in the Developing Rat Brain.

This paper documents that PCB exposure produces thyroid hormone-like effects on gene expression in the developing brain, despite reducing thyroid hormone levels.
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