PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

BPA exposure during pregnancy linked to mothers' future diabetes risk

Animal study finds BPA associated with reduced glucose tolerance, beta cell dysfunction

2015-04-01
(Press-News.org) Washington, DC--Exposure to the endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol A during pregnancy may raise a mother's susceptibility to weight gain and diabetes later in life, according to a new animal study published in the Endocrine Society's journal Endocrinology.

A chemical used to manufacture plastics and epoxy resins, bisphenol A (BPA) is found in a variety of consumer products, including plastic bottles, food cans and cash register receipts. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have estimated that more than 96 percent of Americans have BPA in their bodies.

BPA is a known endocrine disruptor - a chemical that mimics, blocks or interferes with the body's hormones. As of last year, nearly 100 epidemiological studies had been published that found an association between BPA and human health effects, including reproductive and metabolic disorders, according to the introductory guide to endocrine-disrupting chemicals published by the Endocrine Society and IPEN.

"Our results suggest that pregnancy represents a new window of susceptibility for mothers exposed to BPA," said one of the study's authors, Angel Nadal, PhD, of Miguel Hernández University in Elche, Spain. "Low-dose BPA exposure during this period can raise the risks of developing diabetes later in life."

To examine the long-term effects of BPA exposure during pregnancy, the researchers studied pregnant mice. The mice were divided into three groups - one exposed to a 10 μg/kg daily dose of BPA during days 9-16 of gestation, one exposed to a higher dose of 100 μg/kg daily during the same period, and a control group that was not exposed to BPA. After the mice gave birth, the researchers conducted regular glucose tolerance tests to measure their ability to metabolize sugar.

At four months postpartum, the mice that were exposed to BPA began to show signs of impaired glucose tolerance. The mice had higher glucose levels than the control group for 30 minutes after exposure to glucose. When the mice were tested again six months after delivery, the high glucose levels in the group exposed to BPA persisted for two hours after exposure.

Seven months after delivery, the researchers examined the animals' pancreatic beta cells - the cells responsible for manufacturing insulin - under a microscope to determine how BPA affected the cells. The analysis found the mice that were exposed to BPA had a significant decrease in beta cell mass and lower levels of insulin secretion than the control animals.

The mice exposed to BPA also tended to have higher body weights than the control animals. Researchers found mice in the experimental groups tended to be about 3 percent heavier than controls.

BPA mimics the actions of the hormone estradiol - a natural hormone that can regulate beta cell function and provoke insulin resistance. The researchers theorize BPA exposure during pregnancy may result in the overworking of pancreatic beta cells and lead to an increased susceptibility to the development of diabetes and other metabolic disorders.

"A number of studies have found that BPA can harm glucose metabolism in offspring exposed in utero, but this is among the first studies to focus on how the endocrine disruptor affects mothers," said one of the study's authors, Paloma Alonso-Magdalena, PhD. "Our data suggest exposure can have long-term effects for the mother, including a predisposition to being overweight, or developing metabolic syndrome or diabetes."

INFORMATION:

Alonso-Magdalena and Nadal led the study. Other authors of the study include: Marta García-Arévalo and Iván Quesada of the Universidad Miguel Hernández and CIBERDEM, the Spanish Biomedical Research Centre in Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Disorders.

The study, "Bisphenol-A Treatment during Pregnancy in Mice: A New Window of Susceptibility for the Development of Diabetes in Mothers Later in Life," was published online, ahead of print.

Founded in 1916, the Endocrine Society is the world's oldest, largest and most active organization devoted to research on hormones and the clinical practice of endocrinology. Today, the Endocrine Society's membership consists of over 18,000 scientists, physicians, educators, nurses and students in 122 countries. Society members represent all basic, applied and clinical interests in endocrinology. The Endocrine Society is based in Washington, DC. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at http://www.endocrine.org. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/EndoMedia.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Broad Institute-MIT team identifies highly efficient new cas9 for in vivo genome editing

2015-04-01
Cambridge, Mass. April 1, 2015-- A collaborative study between researchers from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the National Center for Biotechnology Information of the National Institutes of Health (NIH-NCBI) has identified a highly efficient Cas9 nuclease that overcomes one of the primary challenges to in vivo genome editing. This finding, published today in Nature, is expected to help make the CRISPR toolbox accessible for in vivo experimental and therapeutic applications. Originally discovered in bacteria, the CRISPR-Cas9 ...

Longer DNA fragments reveal rare species diversity

2015-04-01
Many microbes cannot be cultivated in a laboratory setting, hindering attempts to understand Earth's microbial diversity. Since microbes are heavily involved in, and critically important to environmental processes from nutrient recycling, to carbon processing, to the fertility of topsoils, to the health and growth of plants and forests, accurately characterizing them, as a basis for understanding their activities, is a major goal of the Department of Energy (DOE). One approach has been to study collected DNA extracted from the complex microbial community, or the metagenome, ...

Ebola planning created need for unprecedented preparedness in hospitals

2015-04-01
NEW YORK (April 1, 2015) - Hospitals and health systems preparing for and treating patients with Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the fall of 2015 faced unexpected challenges for ensuring safety of staff, patients and the community. The experiences are detailed in two studies published online in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). In a case study of the care of two patients with confirmed or suspected EVD at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center's Special Clinical Studies Unit, ...

How we hear distance: Echoes are essential for humans to perceive how far away a sound is

2015-04-01
Mammals are good at figuring out which direction a sound is coming from, whether it's a rabbit with a predator breathing down its neck or a baby crying for its mother. But how we judge how far away that sound is was a mystery until now. Researchers from UConn Health report in the 1 April issue of the Journal of Neuroscience that echoes and fluctuations in volume (amplitude modulation) are the cues we use to figure the distance between us and the source of a noise. "This opens up a new horizon," says Duck O. Kim, a neuroscientist at UConn Health. Researchers have long ...

Drop the bounce test: A common battery test often bounces off target

Drop the bounce test: A common battery test often bounces off target
2015-04-01
Don't throw away those bouncing batteries. Researchers at Princeton University have found that common test of bouncing a household battery is not actually an effective way to check a battery's charge. "The bounce does not tell you whether the battery is dead or not, it just tells you whether the battery is fresh," said Daniel Steingart, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. The battery bounce test, popularized in online videos, shows that fully charged batteries bounce very little ...

Interview blues -- anxious, slow talkers often do not get the job

2015-04-01
Researchers offer a few tips for those who are worried that their nerves might stand between them and acing their next job interview. Stop worrying about how much you might blush or your nervous tics, and focus more on being warm, friendly and assertive. The advice comes from Amanda Feiler and Deborah Powell of the University of Guelph in Canada, who carefully watched what anxious people do during an interview, and how others respond to them. Their findings are published in Springer's Journal of Business and Psychology. People who are anxious going into an interview often ...

NASA covers Super Typhoon Maysak's rainfall, winds, clouds, eye

NASA covers Super Typhoon Maysaks rainfall, winds, clouds, eye
2015-04-01
NASA's fleet of satellites and instruments in space have covered Super Typhoon Maysak's rainfall, winds, clouds and an astronaut about the International Space Station captured a close-up photo of the storm's eye. On April 1 at 01:35 UTC (March 31 at 9:35 p.m. EDT), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a stunning view of Super Typhoon Maysak in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The MODIS image clearly showed its eye and bands of powerful thunderstorms circling the eye, and wrapping into it from the east ...

Suicide not associated with deployment among US military personnel

2015-04-01
Deployment to Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom was not associated with suicide in a study of more than 3.9 million U.S. military personnel in the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy, according to an article published online by JAMA Psychiatry. The suicide rate among active duty U.S. military members has increased in the last decade and research on the potential effect of deployment to Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) or Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) is limited, according to the study background. Mark A. Reger, Ph.D., of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, ...

Sexual dysfunction inadequately reported in hair loss drug trials

2015-04-01
First meta-analysis to look at quality of safety reporting in published reports of clinical trials of the drug finasteride for male pattern baldness Zero of 34 clinical trials had adequate safety reporting Available toxicity information in published reports of clinical trials is very limited, of poor quality and appears systematically biased CHICAGO --- Published reports of clinical trials provide insufficient information to adequately establish the safety of finasteride for treatment of hair loss in men, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study to be published ...

Depression often co-occurs with joint diseases

2015-04-01
Those suffering from depressive symptoms have an increased risk for physical diseases, especially for arthrosis and arthritis. These findings were reported by researchers from the University of Basel and the Ruhr-University Bochum. Their results, based on data from 14,300 people living in Switzerland, have been published in the scientific journal "Frontiers in Public Health". Depression is one of the leading health risks and affects 350 million people worldwide. In Switzerland, around 400,000 people individuals suffer from it each year. Several studies in countries around ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Robotic space rovers keep getting stuck. UW engineers have figured out why

New research shows how immigration status can become a death sentence during public health crisis

University of Toronto Engineering researchers develop safer alternative non-stick coating

Good vibrations: Scientists use imaging technology to visualize heat

More ecological diversity means better nutritional resources in Fiji’s agroforests

New global study shows freshwater is disappearing at alarming rates

Scientists create an artificial cell capable of navigating its environment using chemistry alone

A little salt is good for battery health

Deep-sea fish confirmed as a significant source of ocean carbonate

How to keep kids with eating disorders home after hospital stay? Therapy

Sex differences affect efficacy of opioid overdose treatment

Aligning AI with Human Values and Well-Being

Engineering the next generation of experimental physics

The scuba diving industry is funding marine ecosystem conservation and employing locals

BATMAN brings TCR therapy out of the shadows

Surrogates more likely to be diagnosed with mental illness, study finds

Columbia Engineering researchers turn dairy byproduct into tissue repair gel

Global estimates of lives and life-years saved by COVID-19 vaccination during 2020-2024

Potential trade-offs of proposed cuts to the NIH

New research simulates cancer cell behavior

COVID, over 2.5 million deaths prevented worldwide thanks to vaccines. One life saved for every 5,400 doses administered

Scuba diving generates up to $20 billion annually

Scientists advance efforts to create ‘virtual cell lab’ as testing ground for future research with live cells

How DNA packaging controls the “genome’s guardian”

Simplified models, deeper insights: Coarse-grained models unlock new potential for ionic liquid simulations

Gorillas’ personal circumstances shape their aggression towards groupmates

Which signalling pathways in the cell lead to possible therapies for Parkinson's disease

Identifying landslide threats using hydrological predictors

First graders who use more educational media spend more time reading

Exploring the meaning in life through phenomenology and philosophy

[Press-News.org] BPA exposure during pregnancy linked to mothers' future diabetes risk
Animal study finds BPA associated with reduced glucose tolerance, beta cell dysfunction