Summary.

There is growing interest in the possible health threat posed by endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), which are substances in the environment, food, and consumer products that interfere with hormone biosynthesis, metabolism, or action resulting in a deviation from normal homeostatic control or reproduction. In order to understand health risks of estrogenic endocrine disruptors, as much information as possible regarding their biological activity is needed, i.e., their extent of exposure and mechanisms of action via pathways involved in hormone action and homeostasis, including the biological activities of possible metabolites. It is concluded that an underestimation of the overall risk of exposure to estrogens may well result when assessing the contribution of the parent compounds individually only, and experimental or computational studies should be included to elucidate whether compounds can be bioactivated into more estrogenic metabolites. The aim of this work was to predict the metabolic estrogenic activity of some endocrine disruptor chemicals.