The Environmental Pollutant Bisphenol A Interferes with Nucleolar Structure

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an environmental pollutant to which humans are universally exposed, evident as low BPA concentrations present in biological samples in the majority of individuals in developed countries. Although BPA is widely detected in blood, the main source of human exposure is through ingestion, as BPA is broadly used in the plastic industry and therefore present in food containers. In this work, Umbilical Vascular Endothelial Cells (HUVEC) and Human Colon Adenocarcinona (HT29) cell lines were utilized to evaluate the effects of low BPA concentrations on nucleolar organization and function. Our results show that BPA levels commonly found in humans can affect several nucleolar features, including fibrillarin distribution and mean nucleoli number, nucleolin gene expression and nucleoli epigenetic marks.