Projects on Exposome and oral diseases is be led by Sylvie Babajko (DR INSERM) and Jean-Marc Ricort (PR,ENS).

There is growing evidence of a link between environmental conditions and health, with a majority of chronic pathologies directly linked to lifestyle and eating habits, air quality and stress, to cite the most widely studied factors only. We have been working on environmental oral health since more than 15 years: we first explore cellular mechanism of action of excessive fluoride leading to dental fluorosis (references 1-5 below). Second, we aimed to understand etiological factor contributing to the increasing prevalence of acquired enamel hypomineralization (MH/MIH/HSPM) and investigate the effects of chronic low-dose exposure to endocrine disruptors including bisphenols (6-7-9) and phthalates (4) as enamel formation and dental development are controlled by hormones (7-9). We pursue our research on environmental toxicants to characterize their mechanisms of actions (1-2) and associated enamel disruptions (10) in order to propose dental defects as early markers of environmental exposures that help to reconstitute the environmental history during the perinatal period crucial for the health of the future adult, and the time period of dental development. Based on the complementary expertise of the researchers constituting our group (2-8), we now enlarge the field of investigations by adding other components of the exposome in addition to chemicals (endocrine disruptors and pesticides), psychosocial stress, air pollution that may contribute to developmental defects of mineralized and non-mineralized oral tissues, to oral cancers, inflammation and dysbiosis.

Globally, we develop basic researches on oral pathophysiology with the aim to transfer our findings to patients (most of the researchers are clinicians) and more generally to society (we communicate our data to a large public, develop connections with compagnies and reglementary agencies).