environmental impact on reproductive health: can biomarkers offer any help?

Environmental health is broadly defined as the aspects of human health determined by physical, chemical, biological and social factors in the environment and encompasses the assessment and control of those factors. the exogenous and endogenous environmental health determinants include all that surround us, and environmental impact includes not only physical, chemical and biological factors, but also hormones, diet and lifestyle. as most humans develop in a predictable fashion, growing from a fertilized egg to fetus, newborn, toddler, child, adolescent, and adult, there is little doubt that environment is a powerful modifier of the human reproduction and development (1). starting 20 years ago, there has been a steady growth in the number of laboratories involved in the investigation on environmental impact on molecular reprogramming during the most critical windows of development, such as preconception, pre-implantation, the fetal period, and early childhood. and considerable evidence demonstrates that the gene-environmental regulation of gene expression is crucial, besides change in the dna sequence (1, 2).