A novel international investigation jointly carried out by the University of Alicante (UA) and Miguel Hernández (UMH) of Elche suggests the relationship between the presence in blood or in other body fluids of the bisphenol chemical compound A with the development of type diabetes type2.
Bisphenol A (BPA) is still the result of advanced societies, since it is used in huge amounts to manufacture plastics, as well as resins present in cans of canned, dental prints and other daily utensils.
Several scientific studies argue that this endocrine disruptor blocks or interferes with hormones, specifically estrogen, and consider it a risk factor associated with several diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, and some types of cancer.
The researchers of the Department of Physiology, Genetics and Microbiology of the UA Juan Martínez-Pinna and Sergi Soriano, together with the professors of the UMH Ángel Nadal and Paloma Alonso-Magdalena, international referents in this scientific field, have carried out a study usingas a model the beta cell of the endocrine pancreas.
The function of this cell, also called pancreatic beta, is to produce insulin (regulates blood glucose levels), he explained in an interview with Efe Martínez-Pinna.
This research has found that insulin secretion is altered when these cells with relevant doses of bisphenol are incubated from the environmental point of view (that is, a dose that could be found in the blood and fluids of any person livingin a developed society).
The pancreatic beta cell is electrically excitable, a characteristic that it shares with neurons.
"When we incubated it with bisphenol, that electrical signal, which is an indirect measure of insulin secretion, is altered," Martínez-Pinna revealed.
The results of the work suggest a relationship between the presence of this endocrine disruptor in the blood or in the fluids and the development of type 2 diabetes, also caused by overweight and sedentary life, he said.
"Bisphenol A is a powerful estrogen and alters the function of the Beta Pancreatic Beta cell producing insulin," said Martínez-Pinna, who stressed that diabetes is "a pandemic that is increasing."
According to WHO, diabetes cases grow at high speed;Almost 200 million people in the world suffer from it and it is estimated that this figure doubles by 2030.
The scientist has indicated that they are now using the same research methodology with neurons, because there are studies that point to the possible linking of some neurological diseases with bisphenol A.
In this regard, epidemiological data evoke that "there may be a relationship between the presence of bisphenol to and neurological diseases such as autism in children, so we have begun to study what happens when to a neuron you expose it to relevant doses of this endocrine disruptor, in order to determine whether it produces any type of effect or not, "he specified.