Equal Opportunity Outcome: Different pollutants show same impact

At concentrations present in the environment, each of three dissimilar toxic agents can seize control of a signaling pathway that regulates developing cells in the brain and spinal cord, researchers report. They suggest that scientists might use the pathway to predict the toxicology of a diverse range of chemicals.

Mark Noble of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York and his colleagues focused on a pathway that controls the development of cells destined to become oligodendrocytes.