Exposure to Common Plastic May Cause Fertility Defects

A new study from Yale School of Medicine claims to have discovered that exposure during pregnancy to Bisphenol A (BPA), a common constituent of plastics may crop up lasting abnormalities in the uterus of offspring, counting variation in their DNA.The findings were published in the March issue of Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

In addition, the study led by Hugh S Taylor, MD, professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Yale is revealed to be the first in its kind to exhibit that BPA exposure may lastingly impact the sensitivity to estrogen.

“The DNA in the uterus was modified by loss of methyl groups so that it responded abnormally in adulthood”, explained Taylor. “The gene expression was permanently epigenetically altered and the uterus became hyper-responsive to estrogens”.

As a part of the study, Taylor and his team used two groups of mice, one exposed to BPA as a fetus during pregnancy and another exposed to a placebo, analyzing gene expression and the amount of DNA modification in the uterus.

The output revealed that mice exposed to BPA as a fetus posed a significant response to estrogens as adults, long after the exposure to BPA.

Category: BPA, DNA, estrogen, Genes