BPA alternatives detrimental to mother and baby’s health, US study finds
19 Feb 2020 --- Bisphenol A (BPA)-free plastic products could negatively affect both a mother’s placenta and potentially the development of a baby’s brain. This is the conclusion of a new mice study led by the University of Missouri in the US, which highlights that chemical BPA-alternatives, such as Bisphenol S (BPS), are unsafe for humans. This research comes on the heels of precedent studies flagging how exposure to BPS can pose health hazards equally as concerning as BPA.
“Developmental exposure to BPA, or even its substitute BPS, can lead to long-standing health consequences. Synthetic chemicals like BPS can penetrate through the maternal placenta, so whatever is circulating in the mother’s blood can easily be transferred to the developing child,” says Cheryl Rosenfeld, Professor of Biomedical Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Missouri. 
The placenta serves as a primary source of serotonin – the neurotransmitter responsible for happiness, learning, memory and numerous physiological processes – for fetal brain development in both mice and humans. “The placenta responds to both natural chemicals as well as synthetic chemicals that the body misinterprets as natural chemicals but the body doesn’t have the ability to mitigate the detrimental effects of such industrial-made chemicals,” Rosenfeld explains.
The placenta, which connects the developing fetus to the uterine wall, is negatively affected by increased BPS exposure.Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study found that BPS exposure causes almost identical placental effects as BPA. Moreover, both BPA and BPS target the spongiotrophoblast, the cells help provide nutrients to the embryo and develop into a large part of the placenta, within the junctional zone.
BPA and BPS were also both found to decrease the omega 3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), the primary structural component of the human brain, and estradiol, an estrogen steroid and the primary female sex hormone.
The researchers administered 200 μg/kg body weight BPA or BPS daily for two weeks and then had the mice bred. They continued to receive these chemicals until embryonic day 12.5, whereupon placental samples were collected and compared with unexposed controls. BPA and BPS altered the expression of an identical set of 13 genes.
“This mouse model is the best model we have now to simulate the possible effects of BPS during human pregnancy because the placenta has a similar structure in both mice and humans,” Rosenfeldexplains.
Detrimental to human health
Bisphenol A is an organic synthetic compound found in polycarbonate plastics often used in making containers to store food and beverages. It is also widely used to manufacture polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins and as a color developer in thermal papers. It is also used in consumer products as varied as sports equipment and CDs, but recent concerns about safety have led to restrictions on its use.
As BPS has been frequently associated with health risks such as Type 2 diabetes, the General Court of the EU confirmed BPA as a substance of “very high concern” in 2019. This ruling requires companies selling or using the substance to provide information to their supply chain on the properties of the substance and safe use.
In 2018, research from the Washington State University in the US found serendipitously that replacement bisphenols used plastic lab mice cages caused problems in the mice’s production of both eggs and sperm.
Rosenfeld maintains that her research aims to improve human health by determining the relevance of animal science discoveries to people. This research can provide the foundation for precision medicine and personalized human health care.
By Anni Schleicher
