Scientists Discover Possible Link Between BPA Exposure and Autism

There's may actually be an association between bisphenol-A (BPA) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children. Scientists have found that BPS is not metabolized well in children with ASD.

"It has been suspected for a lot of years that BPA is involved in autism, but there was no direct evidence," said T. Peter Stein, the lead author of the new study, in a news release. "We've shown there is a link. The metabolism of BPA is different in some children with autism than it is in otherwise healthy children."

In order to look at the link between autism and BPA, the researchers examined urine specimens from 46 children with ASD and 52 healthy children for both free BPA and total BPA concentrations. BPA becomes water soluble when it's bound to glucose in the liver, which means that it can be detected in urine.

The scientists also conducted a metabolomics analysis to screen for all the chemicals found in the children's urine. The metabolomics analysis showed the mean number of statistically significant correlations between metabolites detected and total BPA excreted to be approximately three times greater with the ASD group than the controls, and the number of statistical significant correlations with fraction of BPA bound was approximately 15 times higher in children with ASD.

"Other studies involving rodent data have shown that BPA functions as an endocrine disruptor, but ours is the first to show this in humans and the first to associate it to autism," said Stein. "The observations show that for some children there was a relationship between intermediary metabolism, the ability to conjugate BPA and symptoms of autism."

That said, the study involves a relatively small number of subjects. This means that further studies are needed in order to better assess the link between BPA and autism.

The findings are published in the journal Autism Research.

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