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According to the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, BPA is found in polycarbonate plastics used in some food and drink packaging, impact-resistant safety equipment, and medical devices.

Fetal BPA exposure increases adult food allergies

New research suggests exposure to Bisphenol A — at a dose significantly below the FDA Tolerable Daily Intake — predisposes children to food intollerance and food allergies as adults.

It seems like more people are allergic or just intolerant of more foods than ever before. Now the reason why may come from new research. For the first time a link has been shown to exist between low dose exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA) during and immediately after pregnancy (perinatal) and increases in the risk of food intolerance and allergy.

The research was conducted using rats and suggests that early life exposure at a BPA dose significantly below current safety limits (set by the FDA) affects the developing prenatal immune system. The work is published in the November 2014 issue of FASEB.

"On the basis of increased susceptibility to food intolerance after perinatal exposure to BPA, this new data may help public health authorities make decisions to significantly reduce the level of exposure to BPA in pregnant and breastfeeding women. Thus limiting the risk in children for adverse food reactions later in life."

Sandrine Menard PhD, scientist, Department of Neuro-Gastroenterology and Nutrition, INRA, Toulouse, France.

Experiments were conducted on pregnant rats. One group received BPA orally every day at a dose of 5 µg/kg of body weight, beginning gestational day 15 to day 21 after birth, when pups were weaned. The second group — or control — was not treated with BPA throughout the same period. After weaning, offspring were kept untouched until adulthood at day 45.

In animals perinatally exposed to BPA, feeding with protein from egg whites (ovalbumin: the main protein found in egg white, making up 60-65% of its' total protein) induced an extreme immune response, not observed in control rats. Furthermore, a repeated oral administration of ovalbumin in the BPA-exposed rats induced colon inflammation, suggestive of food intolerance, also not observed in control animals.

This study provides strong rationale for preventive management of immune disorders, such as food intolerance, rather than therapeutic issues. This research may also help public health authorities identify the variety of effects of BPA on the immune system, at low levels of exposure, during sensitive phases of an individual's development, especially during fetal life, and for pregnant and breastfeeding women.

"We may look back one day and see BPA exposure as one of the more important public health problems of our time. We know that too much exposure is bad, but exactly how much exposure is too much is still in debate."

Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal.

According to the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH, BPA is found in polycarbonate plastics used in some food and drink packaging, impact-resistant safety equipment, and medical devices.

Epoxy resins containing BPA are also used as lacquers to coat metal in items, such as food cans, bottle tops, and water supply pipes. Some dental sealants and composites may also contribute to BPA exposure.

Most exposure occurs when BPA leaches into food from the internal epoxy resin coatings of canned foods and from consumer products such as polycarbonate dinnerware, food storage containers, water bottles, and baby bottles.

The degree to which BPA leaches from polycarbonate bottles into liquid may depend more on the temperature of the liquid or bottle, than the age of the container.

BPA has also been found in breast milk.

Abstract
The food contaminant bisphenol A (BPA) is pointed out as a risk factor in development of food allergy and food intolerance, two adverse food reactions increasing worldwide. We evaluated the consequences of perinatal exposure to low doses of BPA on immune-specific response to the food antigen ovalbumin (OVA) at adulthood. Perinatal exposure to BPA (0.5, 5, or 50 μg/kg/d) from 15th day of gravidity to pups weaning resulted in an increase of anti-OVA IgG titers at all BPA dosages in OVA-tolerized rats, and at 5 μg/kg/d in OVA-immunized rats compared to control rats treated with vehicle. In BPA-treated and OVA-tolerized rats, increased anti-OVA IgG titers were associated with higher IFNγ secretion by the spleen. This result is in accordance with the increase of activated CD4+CD44highCD62Llow T lymphocytes observed in spleen of BPA-exposed rats compared to controls. Finally, when BPA-treated OVA-tolerized rats were orally challenged with OVA, colonic inflammation occurred, with neutrophil infiltration, increased IFNγ, and decreased TGFβ. We show that perinatal exposure to BPA altered oral tolerance and immunization to dietary antigens (OVA). In summary, the naive immune system of neonate is vulnerable to low doses of BPA that trigger food intolerance later in life.—Menard, S., Guzylack-Piriou, L., Leveque, M., Braniste, V., Lencina, C., Naturel, M., Moussa, L., Sekkal, S., Harkat, C., Gaultier, E., Theodorou, V., Houdeau, E. Food intolerance at adulthood after perinatal exposure to the endocrine disruptor bisphenol A.

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