A most recent publication in Scientific Reports, a Nature group journal (link: https://rdcu.be/Puvo ) by the Cyprus International Institute for Environmental and Public Health in collaboration with the University of Groningen and the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience explored the presence of bisphenols (i.e. bisphenol A (BPA), and its BPA-free substitute, i.e., bisphenol F (BPF), including the chlorinated by product of BPA, i.e., chlorinated BPA (ClBPA)) in different brain regions and their possible relation to obesity. Brain tissue samples from obese and non-obese individuals were obtained from the Netherlands Brain Bank of the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience. For the experiment, white matter-enriched areas and hypothalamic tissues were tested. All three bisphenols were found in hypothalamic and white matter-enriched samples indicating that the blood:brain barrier is crossed by bisphenols, reaching out to brain regions where key metabolic processes are initiated.

This study is small in sample size and needs to be replicated in the future, but these novel findings provide catalytic data for future studies elucidating the role of bisphenols in obesity and metabolic diseases.

The CII has been studying the human health effects of plasticizer exposures for the past 5 years. Such metabolic disruptors, bisphenol A (BPA) and its structural analogs, are ubiquitous in the environment, all of which are widely used in the production of food/water packaging plastics and labeled BPA-free products.

For more information, please contact CII at 357-25002246.