Assistant Professor New York University School of Medicine New York, New York, United States
Background: A chronic exposure of kidneys to endocrine disruptors compounds such as bisphenol A (BPA) is mainly significant because it can potentially impact not only the adult kidneys but also can impact structural and functional development in children. BPA is a pervasive chemical exposure in the US and has been linked to adverse health effects in humans and mainly identified as an endocrine disruptor. BPA has been recently removed from many commercial products because of its potential adverse effect. However BPA was replaced by structurally similar compounds such as bisphenol S (BPS) and bisphenol F (BPF). Unfortunately, these three compounds are the leading bisphenols present in humans. Despite the vast information available for BPA, much remains to be known regarding these emerging BPA analogues. The potential role of BPA substitutes in kidney epithelial cell function remains unclear. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the exposure of bisphenols to human embryonic kidney epithelial (HEK-293) cells and their role in bisphenols-induced epithelial cell transformation. Objective: To test the hypothesis that whether BPA and its substitutes such as BPS and BPF exposure alters molecular and phenotypic changes of HEK-293, predisposing them to a pro-carcinogenic phenotype. Design/Methods: To determine whether BPA and its substitutes change cell morphology and function in vitro, HEK-293 cells were chronically exposed to low doses of BPA, BPS and BPF, and then the cell transformation soft agar assay was performed in an anchorage-independent growth and colony formation was assessed. Arsenic was used as a positive control. Results: Our results showed that not only BPA but also BPA substitutes, BPS and BPF facilitate a dose dependent cell survival in HEK-293 cells. Further, our findings from soft agar assay also indicate that exposure of HEK-293 cells to low doses of BPA, BPS and BPF induced cell transformation. In this study, we identified BPS and BPF are potential human toxicants to induce kidney epithelial cell diseases in addition to BPA.
Conclusion(s): We observed that there is a dose dependent cells survival pattern after exposing the epithelial cells to BPA and its substitutes. Further, the current study demonstrated that chronic exposure of the embryonic human kidney epithelial cells to BPA and its substitutes such as BPS and BPF causes epithelial cell transformation, indicating that these endocrine disruptors may tend to persuade kidney epithelial diseases.
