Unexpected Activity: Evidence for Obesogenicity of a BPA Metabolite

Wendee Nicole has written for Discover, Scientific American, and other publications. About This Article open Citation: Nicole W. 2015. Unexpected activity: evidence for obesogenicity of a BPA metabolite. Environ Health Perspect 123:A303; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.123-A303 Published: 1 December 2015 PDF Version (192 KB) Related EHP Article In Vitro Effects of Bisphenol A β-D-Glucuronide (BPA-G) on Adipogenesis in Human and Murine Preadipocytes Jonathan G. Boucher, Adèle Boudreau, Shaimaa Ahmed, and Ella Atlas Bisphenol A (BPA) has been implicated as an obesogen, a compound that alters lipid metabolism, promoting development of adipocytes (fat cells) and accumulation of fat.1,2 BPA is quickly converted in the body to its main metabolite, BPA β-D-glucuronide (BPA-G), which has been thought to be biologically inactive.3 But a study reported in this issue of EHP indicates that BPA-G, like its parent compound BPA, can induce precursor cells called preadipocytes to develop into mature fat cells.4 In one experiment the researchers treated mouse preadipocytes with 10 μM of BPA-G. This resulted in a significant increase in fat accumulation and stimulated protein expression of three adipogenic markers—lipoprotein lipase, aP2, and adipsin—in the mouse cells. In experiments with human preadipocytes, they found that both 0.05 and 0.25 μM BPA-G stimulated fat cell differentiation as determined by aP2 protein levels. However, co-exposure with fulvestrant—an estrogen-re...
Source: EHP Research - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Featured News Science Selection December 2015 Source Type: research