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FRIDAY, Aug. 25 (HealthDay News) -- A chemical found in the harder plastics that make up CD cases, water-cooler jugs and other objects people handle might help promote breast cancer, researchers say.
The chemical -- a "pseudo-estrogen" called bisphenol-A -- appears to be preferentially absorbed by breast tumor cells, according to a new study published in the Aug. 28 issue of Chemistry & Biology.
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While the new research doesn't give any definitive answer on BPA's potential role in breast cancer, American researchers say they have uncovered a biological mechanism that allows the compound to concentrate in tumor cells.
Healthy cells don't readily absorb bisphenol sulfate, one of the body's metabolized forms of BPA. So, many experts have assumed the chemical might be harmless.
However, "it turns out that breast tumor cells are different than normal cells," lead researcher Theodore Widlanski of Indiana University, said. "We showed that breast tumor cells actually convert bisphenol sulfate back into bisphenol-A, which can then be taken up into tumor cells."
"These guys were aiming at what I'd say was the 'missing link,'" added Patricia Hunt, a molecular bioscience professor at Washington State University who has conducted her own studies suggesting a link between BPA and birth defects in mice. "This is a first step, and a really important first step," she said.
The effects of BPA on human health -- if any -- have been hotly debated. Previous studies have linked even small exposures to prostate abnormalities in mice that suggest -- but do not prove -- a link between the plastics chemical and human prostate cancer.
Other studies, including Hunt's, have theorized that embryonic and fetal exposures to BPA might trigger chromosomal changes that, in turn, could raise risks for mental retardation and birth defects.
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