My research focuses on “environmental pollutants (phthalates and alternative plasticisers) and premature rupture of foetal membranes”. Phthalates are reprotoxic pollutants that are omnipresent in the environment. Detectable in amniotic fluid, these compounds (the most concentrated of which is mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (MEHP)) are in direct contact with fetal membranes (FM) (amnion and chorion). They can lead to premature rupture of FMs by deregulating cellular and molecular pathways, such as the nuclear transcription factor PPARγ (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma). The objective is to study the impact of these pollutants on the PPARγ pathway in FMs using amniotic epithelial cell lines and primary amniotic cells with the help of molecular biology tools.