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IFC Comments on Study Examining BPA and Human Placental Cells

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IFC Comments on Study Examining BPA and Human Placental Cells

A study in the December 2009 edition of Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology investigated toxic effects of BPA concentrations on human placental cells and concluded that low does of BPA “may cause detrimental effects, leading in vivo to adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preeclampsia, intrauterine growth restriction, prematurity and pregnancy loss.”* Although the study’s findings are interesting, the conclusions may be premature, as the study was performed in a cell culture model. The authors incubated isolated cells with BPA for 24 hours continuously; such treatment does not model human ingestion of BPA, which quickly undergoes a process of glucuronidation, tagging BPA for excretion, thereby allowing it to be rapidly removed from the body. In this study, BPA lingered in the cells for 24 hours, whereas the half life of BPA in the human body is much shorter. In addition, humans typically have periodic (not continuous) BPA exposures, and also have exposure to various protective substances from the diet that enter the blood.  Vitamins like folic acid and vitamin B6, which are methyl donors, have been shown to counteract the effects of BPA regarding DNA hypomethylation.  The simplicity of a cell culture system cannot replicate the in vivo environment, which includes many other known molecules which help counteract BPA’s effects.

 
Further, the researchers did not quantify the level of BPA exposures in the women from whom they obtained the placentas, from which the cells were isolated.  However, given that environmental exposure is ubiquitous, it is likely that these women were at least exposed to some level of BPA previously. Thus, the exposure of the placenta to BPA in this study represents a second exposure in addition to environmental exposure to BPA. It is worth noting that all of the women whose cells were examined in this study had normal deliveries and healthy infants.
 
Additionally, the biological significance of this study is unclear. The authors show a two-fold increase in apoptosis of cells exposed to BPA, but the reader is left wondering what the biological significance in humans is of a two-fold increase in vitro (in a cell cultures system). Further research is warranted before any conclusions can be drawn.
 
 
*Benachour, N. and Aris, A. Toxic effects of low doses of Bisphenol-A on human placental cells. Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology 2009; 241: 322-328.