Abstract
Bisphenol A (BPA) is an endocrine-disrupting chemical widely used in the plastics industry, including food container, toys, and medical equipment. We analyzed the effect of BPA in human umbilical artery contractility and expression of some proteins modulating this function, such as ionic channels and proteins involved in the cGMP pathway. Using standard organ bath technique, rings of human umbilical arteries without endothelium were contracted by 5-HT (1 μM) and histamine (10 μM) and the effect of different concentrations of BPA (1 nM–100 μM) was analyzed. The results showed that BPA is a vasodilator of these arteries in a concentration-dependent way. Besides, qPCR studies on human umbilical smooth muscle cells (HUSMC) allowed to analyze the effects of BPA on gene expression. Thus, 12-h exposition to BPA induced reduction of expression of L-type calcium channels (LTCC), alpha subunit of BKCa channels, and Kvβ1 and Kvβ3 from Kv channels. BPA also decreased the expression of soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) and natriuretic peptide receptor type A (NPRA), meanwhile increasing that of PKG, proteins involved in vasodilation of human umbilical arteries (HUA) by cGMP. Further studies will be necessary to increase knowledge about the implications of these changes induced by BPA exposure.
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Data availability
The authors of the manuscript did not consider it necessary to use research data support to make available data and materials related to the submitted manuscript. However, the datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Change history
20 December 2022
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24808-6
Abbreviations
- sGC:
-
Soluble guanylate cyclase
- PKG:
-
Protein kinase dependent on cGMP
- Cav1.2:
-
Subunit of L-type calcium channels
- NPRA:
-
Natriuretic peptide receptor A
- BKCaα:
-
α Subunit of calcium activated potassium channels
- BKCaβ:
-
β Subunit of calcium activated potassium channels
- Kvβ1:
-
β1 Subunit of voltage-dependent potassium channels
- Kvβ2:
-
β2 Subunit of voltage-dependent potassium channels
- Kvβ3:
-
β3 Subunit of voltage-dependent potassium channels
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the donor mothers and the staff of the Gynaecology–Obstetrics Department of the “Centro Hospitalar da Cova da Beira” (Covilhã, Portugal) for their collaboration.
Funding
This work is supported by FEDER funds through the POCI-COMPETE 2020-Operational Programme Competitiveness and Internationalisation in Axis I-Strengthening research, technological development and innovation (Project POCI-01–0145-FEDER-007491) and National Funds by FCT-Foundation for Science and Technology (Project UID/Multi/00709/2013).
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All authors whose names appear on the submission:
(1) made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work
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(4) agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved
Nádia Oliveira contributed to the data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, resources, validation, visualization, writing original draft, writing, review, and editing.
Helena Marcelino contributed to the formal analysis, investigation, methodology, resources, supervision, writing, review, and editing.
Regina Azevedo contributed to the formal analysis, investigation, methodology, resources, supervision, writing, review, and editing.
Ignacio Verde contributed to the conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, software, supervision, visualization, writing original draft, writing, review, and editing.
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All procedures performed with umbilical cord samples were approved by the Ethics Committee of “Centro Hospitalar da Cova da Beira” (Covilhã, Portugal) according to Declaration of Helsinki guidelines. The umbilical cord pieces were collected at “Centro Hospitalar da Cova da Beira” (Covilhã, Portugal) from normal term pregnancies after vaginal delivery. According with the report of the Ethics Committee, the anonymity of the mothers/newborns was assured. In addition, to use the umbilical cord samples, the informed consent of the donner mothers was settled.
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All listed authors have read the manuscript and approved its submission to Environmental Science and Pollution Research: Nadia Oliveira, Helena Marcelino, Regina Azevedo, and Ignacio Verde.
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Oliveira, N., Marcelino, H., Azevedo, R. et al. Effects of bisphenol A on human umbilical arteries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 27670–27681 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24069-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24069-3