A new studio on mice confirms the damage of bisfenol to (BPA) to our health: according to what has been discovered by the research published on Physiology & Behaviorprenatal exposure to chemical substance could lead to lasting changes in the brain and behavior associated with schizophrenia. But be careful: the harmful effects of the BPA would only affect females, and not males.
The BPA is harmful: we already knew it. The BPA is a substance that until recently was commonly found in plastic bottles, food containers and receipts. Its harmful effect on human health is not new to us, and we know that it enters our body with great ease, even managing to cross the placenta and get to the brain of the unborn child. In the past, several studies have connected early exposure to the BPA to learning, memory, mood and social behavior problems in animals, and to neuro -evolutionary disorders such as anxiety, depression and autism in humans.
For all these reasons, after having forbidden the use in the receipts in 2020, in December 2024 the Union of Europe has eliminated the bisphenol A also from the materials that come into contact with food. In other countries of the world, however, the laws are not so restrictive and the BPA continues to be used (in some US states, for example, it is prohibited only in children’s products).
The study. The researchers wanted to verify whether the prenatal exhibition at the BPA could affect schizophrenia markers in mice. To do this, they divided some packed females in four groups, to which they administered from the first day of pregnancy until the birth is a high dose or a bass of BPA, an estrogen (Etinilestradiol) or a control solution.
About two months after childbirth, the females and males born were tested to verify any changes in behavior: it emerged that the females that had been exposed during gestation to the BPA (indifferently from the quantities) showed a significant drop in the pre-impulse inhibition (PPI, in English prepulse inhibition), a deficit that is commonly verified in those suffering from schizophrenia, and a drastic reduction in the number of neurons Partalbumina-positive in the prefrontal cortex, typical also in this case of schizophrenic. In both cases, males were immune to any change.
Conclusions and limits of research. What has been discovered adds to the numerous research that connects the prenatal exposure to bisfenol to long -term and functional long -term changes in the brain connected to schizophrenia.
Why are only the females affected? According to the authors, a possible explanation would be to be found in the fact that the BPA-similar activity could interfere with the signal of the extrOgen receptors, which affects the development of the brain and is different between males and females.
The same researchers recognize that the study has several limits, including the fact of having focused only in the prenatal period, having analyzed the mice only at the beginning of adulthood, having tested only two doses of BPA and, finally, having analyzed only tiny sections of brain tissue.
