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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Next >> BPA is a raw material used in the manufacture of hard, clear plastic products -- everything from electronics parts to food-storage containers and baby bottles. It is not found in softer, more flexible products such as single-serving water bottles.
The chemical is known a "pseudo-estrogen" because it is one of a number of natural or synthetic materials that can be taken into human cells and trigger estrogenic effects. But unlike estrogen, BPA undergoes chemical modifications as it enters the body, which makes its absorption by healthy human cells nearly impossible.
Specifically, the addition of a sulfate molecule to BPA keeps it from permeating the healthy cell's outer membrane. But would the same phenomenon hold true for malignant cells, researchers wondered?
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In a laboratory study using human breast cancer cell lines, the Indiana researchers, along with scientists from the University of California at Berkley, found that BPA appeared to concentrate in tumor cells.
"We found no BPA in the medium the cells were grown in," Widlanski noted.
The key, according to Widlanski, is that the breast tumor cell carries an enzyme on its surface that strips sulfate molecules away from BPA. "Healthy cells don't have this property," he said. Once inside the tumor cell, BPA might encourage the cell's survival and proliferation, in the same way that estrogen does.
Widlanski cautioned, however, that his team's study had only uncovered a potential mechanism linking BPA to the promotion of breast cancer. Whether this mechanism actually occurs in real life is tough to prove, he said, as is the notion that BPA exposure plays a significant role in breast cancer.
The bottom line, according to Widlanski: "If you weren't alarmed yesterday about BPA, then you shouldn't be alarmed today. Nothing we have shown changes the innate danger. We have just reported a mechanism."
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