Long-term BPA exposure leads to bone malformation and abnormal expression of MAPK/Wnt/FoxO signaling pathway genes in zebrafish offspring

Abstract

Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the world’s most widely used plasticizer, and its hazardous impacts have been well studied. However, few studies focused on the effects of parental long-term BPA exposure on the bone development of offspring. In the present study, the bone development of offspring was studied following long-term exposure of parental zebrafish to environmentally relevant 15 and 225 µg/L BPA. The results showed that BPA increased the mortality and deformity rate of offspring and caused craniofacial deformities characterized by changes in various cartilage angles and lengths. The alizarin red and calcein staining showed that BPA could delay bone mineralization and reduce bone mass accumulation. The results of acridine orange staining indicated that BPA induced apoptosis of the skull. The degree of harm of BPA presented a dose-dependent pattern. The results of the comparative transcriptome showed that there were 380 different expression genes (DEGs) in the 15 µg/L BPA group, and 645 DEGs in the 225 µg/L BPA group. MAPK/Wnt/FoxO signaling pathway-related genes were significantly down-regulated in the BPA-exposed groups. The present study demonstrates that long-term parental BPA exposure would severely affect cartilage development and bone mineralization of fish offspring, and MAPK/Wnt/FoxO signaling pathways may be involved in this process.