Prostate histological investigation in rats exposed to bisphenol a and phytochemicals during the perinatal period and subjected to hormonal stimulus in adulthood

ABSTRACT

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an environmentally dispersed chemical associated with tumor development. Phytochemicals such as indole-3-carbinol (I3C) and genistein (GEN) have chemoprotective effects on tumor cells. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the prostatic morphological aspects of rats exposed to BPA, GEN, and I3C during the perinatal period and submitted to hormonal stimulus in adulthood. Blood was collected to obtain hormone concentrations. Slides stained with hematoxylin & eosin, and picrosirius were subjected to fractal, stereological, morphometric, and collagen quantification analysis. I3C decreased the plasma dihydrotestosterone levels, and both phytochemicals increased the plasma estrogen levels. Unlike phytochemicals, BPA did not alter any of the parameters evaluated. GEN reduced the epithelial height, while I3C increased the fractal dimension and stromal collagen. Although BPA did not alter the prostate morphology, the phytochemicals provided beneficial effects for the prostate histological organization in adult animals subjected to hormonal stimulus.

KEYWORDS:

• Endocrine disruptors
• genistein
• indole-3-carbinol

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data supporting this study’s findings are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo - FAPESP (Grants Numbers: 2012/24935-6, 2019/14081-9).