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GDCB Seminar: 'Effects of bisphenols on placental structure and function'

Aug 28, 2018 - 4:10 PM
to Aug 28, 2018 - 5:00 PM
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Cheryl S. RosenfeldSpeaker: Cheryl Rosenfeld, University of Missouri Biomedical Sciences

Title: Effects of bisphenols on placental structure and function

Abstract: The placenta is the primary organ of communication between the mother and conceptus, and it also provides a conduit for nutrient and gas exchange. Moreover, it is increasingly becoming apparent that many later offspring diseases, including cardiovascular and neurobehavioral, trace their origins back to placental dysfunction. Subtle changes in maternal diet can result in sex-dependent transcriptomic differences in this organ with females in general being able to respond more rapidly to shifts in maternal diet. Such sex differences in placental responses might account for males being more susceptible to later diseases of these two above systems. While transient, the placenta is considered a major endocrine organ in that it can produce and respond to various steroidogenic hormones. Consequently, it can be vulnerable to developmental exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), such as bisphenol A (BPA) and bisphenol S (BPS, a widely produces BPA substitute with in many cases equal potency to BPA). In the current set of studies, we sought to determine in mice whether maternal exposure to BPA and BPS affects the placental transcriptome and structure in a sex-dependent manner. An additional goal was to determine whether concurrent maternal exercise in the form of a voluntary wheel might mitigate the potential effects of BPA/BPS on the placenta and later offspring health. The seminar, which represents a collaboration between researchers at the University of Missouri and Iowa State University, will discuss the results of these experiments.

Host: Geetu Tuteja