Bisphenol A (BPA) at Very Low Levels Can Adversely Affect Developing Organs in Primates, MU Researcher Finds

http://munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2014/0227-bisphenol-a-bpa-at-very-low-levels-can-adversely-affect-developing-organs-in-primates-mu-researcher-finds/

Feb. 27, 2014
University of Missouri
Story Contact(s): Jeff Sossamon

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical that is used in a wide variety of consumer products, such as resins used to line metal food and beverage containers, thermal paper store receipts, and dental composites. BPA exhibits hormone-like properties, and exposure of fetuses, infants, children or adults to the chemical has been shown to cause numerous abnormalities, including cancer, as well as reproductive, immune and brain-behavior problems in rodents. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have determined that daily exposure to very low concentrations of BPA by pregnant females also can cause fetal abnormalities in primates.

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“The very low-level exposure to BPA we delivered once a day to the rhesus monkeys is far less than the BPA levels humans are exposed to each day, which reflects multiple exposures,” vom Saal said. “Our findings suggest that traditional toxicological studies likely underestimate actual human exposure and show, unequivocally, that biologically active BPA passes from the mother to the fetus. Additionally, our latest study shows that BPA causes damage to developing systems of monkey fetuses, and this is of great concern for human fetuses.”

The study, “Bisphenol A (BPA) pharmacokinetics with daily oral bolus or continuous exposure via silastic capsules in pregnant rhesus monkeys: relevance for human exposures,” was funded in part by the NIEHS and was published in Reproductive Toxicology in collaboration with Catherine A. VandeVoort with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis; Julia A. Taylor and Wade V. Welshons with the University of Missouri; Pierre-Louis Toutain with the Univesite de Toulouse; and Patricia A Hunt with the School of Molecular Biosciences at Washington State University.