BPA-induced molecular alteration and brain deformities : oligomeric proanthocyanidins intervention study / Fatin Naziha Osman

This study was conducted to assess the effects of Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins (OPC) supplementation on behavioural characteristics and neurogenesis in Bisphenol-A (BPA)-induced rats. Thirty-Six Adult Sprague Dawley male rats were divided into six groups: Normal, BPA (200 mg/kg b.wt. BPA), OPC 10 (10 ug/kg b.wt. OPC), OPC20 (20 ug/kg b.wt. OPC), BPA+OPC10 (200 mg/kg b.wt. BPA + 10 ug/kg b.wt. OPC) and BPA+OPC20 (200 mg/kg b.wt. BPA + 20 ug/kg b.wt. OPC) treated groups. Rats from the respective groups were treated accordingly with the respective dosages, daily, for 21 consecutive days via oral route. Novel Object Discrimination (NOD) test was performed 24 hours after the final administration. The rats were sacrificed after the completion of NOD test. Brains were collected and fixed in 10% formalin, sectioned, stained using cresyl violet staining and examined to assess neurogenesis in hippocampus. Blood was collected and stored at -80°C for chromosome microarray analysis. During NOD test, Normal, OPC10, OPC20, BPA+OPC10 and BPA+OPC20 groups had a significantly longer novel object exploration time as compared to familiar object (p0.05). Results from NOD test suggested that BPA may cause impairment in the rat's ability to remember the previously encountered familiar object while OPC treatment may ameliorate the effect of BPA towards object recognition memory. A significantly thicker dentate gyrus in BPA+OPC10 group (p