MedWire News: Maternal exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA) during pregnancy may increase the risk for asthma in children, results of a study in mice suggest.
BPA is an environmental estrogen that is commonly found in a wide range of plastic products. However, in January 2010, the US Food and Drug Administration announced that it was concerned about "the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior, and prostate gland of fetuses, infants, and young children."
Researchers in the current study previously reported that various environmental estrogens induce mast cell degranulation and enhance immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated release of allergic mediators in vitro.
To investigate further, Terumi Midoro-Horiuti (University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, USA) and team used a mouse model of asthma to test whether maternal exposure to BPA during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk for the respiratory condition in offspring.
Two groups of female BALB/c mice received either 10 µg/ml BPA in their drinking water from 1 week before impregnation to the end of the study period, or drinking water that did not contain the chemical. Mice received BPA in concentrations designed to mimic those typically found in humans.
Four days after birth, the researchers sensitized neonatal mice with an allergy-provoking ovalbumin injection, followed by a series of daily respiratory doses of ovalbumin. The offspring were then assessed for IgE antibodies to ovalbumin, as well as airway hyper-responsiveness and lung eosinophil levels as an indicator of airway inflammation. Lung function measurements were also taken.
The researchers found that offspring of BPA-exposed mice had significantly higher IgE anti-ovalbumin concentrations after sensitization and significantly higher eosinophil levels than offspring of unexposed mice. Neonates from BPA-exposed mice also had greater airway hyper-responsiveness and lower lung function after sensitization than those from non-exposed mice.
Midoro-Horiuti and team conclude in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives: “The results described here indicate that we must give due consideration to the possible impact of environmental estrogens on normal immune development and on the development and morbidity of immunologic diseases, such as asthma.”
They add: “Understanding the implications of our study for human asthma will require epidemiologic studies that examine the effect of BPA burden of mothers and their children on the risk of developing childhood and adult asthma in large populations.”
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