Vitamin A insufficiency accelerates the decrease in the number of sperm induced by an environmental disruptor, bisphenol A, in neonatal mice

Abstract

Exposure of neonatal mice to an estrogenic endocrine disruptor, bisphenol A, resulted in a malfunction of the testes when the animals became adults. The effect of bisphenol A was cancelled out by concurrent administration of retinol acetate, a naturally occurring metabolite of vitamin A. In contrast, the effect of endocrine disruption became more severe in mice neonatally exposed to bisphenol A and nursed by mothers fed a vitamin A-deficient diet only a few days before and after parturition. These results clearly show that maternal vitamin A is important for relieving in a baby the effect of endocrine disruption caused by environmental xenoestrogens, and suggest that the changes in the content of vitamin A and similar physiological factors in the habitat may be worth considering in studies on environmental disruptors.