ESR2 and depressive disorder: Xu et al. (2015) found that perinatal exposure to Di-(2-ethylhexyl)-Phthalate (DEHP) enhances anxiety and depression-like behaviors in offspring mice, potentially interfering with gonadal hormone activity through alterations in the hippocampal expression of both androgen receptor (AR) and estrogen receptor beta (ERb) (Xu et al., 2015).