Neurotoxicity of low bisphenol A (BPA) exposure for young male mice: Implications for children exposed to environmental levels of BPA

Abstract

To investigate the neuron toxicities of low-dose exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) in children, mice were used as an animal model. We examined brain cell damage and the effects of learning and memory ability after BPA exposure in male mice (4 weeks of age) that were divided into four groups and chronically received different BPA treatments for 8 weeks. The comet assay and hippocampal neuron counting were used to detect the brain cell damage. The Y-maze test was applied to test alterations in learning and memory ability. Long term potentiation induction by BPA exposure was performed to study the potential mechanism of performance. The percentages of tail DNA, tail length and tail moment in brain cells increased with increasing BPA exposure concentrations. Significant differences in DNA damage were observed among the groups, including between the low-dose and control groups. In the Y-maze test, the other three groups qualified for the learned standard one day earlier than the high-exposed group. Furthermore, the ratio of qualified mice in the high-exposed group was always the lowest among the groups, indicating that high BPA treatment significantly altered the spatial memory performance of mice. Different BPA treatments exerted different effects on the neuron numbers of different regions in the hippocampus. In the CA1 region, the high-exposed group had a significant decrease in neuron numbers. A non-monotonic relationship was observed between the exposure concentrations and neuron quantity in the CA3 region. The hippocampal slices in the control and medium-exposed groups generated long-term potentiation after induction by theta burst stimulation, but the low-exposed group did not. A significant difference was observed between the control and low-exposed groups. In conclusion, chronic exposure to a low level of BPA had adverse effects on brain cells and altered the learning and memory ability of adolescent mice.