Study Allegedly Links BPA to Insulin Resistance

A recent study has claimed that bisphenol A (BPA) exposure causes pancreatic cells to secrete increased amounts of insulin, thereby raising questions about the substance’s effect on insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and obesity. Sergi Soriano, “Rapid Insulinotropic Action of Low Doses of Bisphenol-A on Mouse and Human Islets of Langerhans: Role of Estrogen Receptor β,” PLoS One, February 2012. Researchers evidently used pancreatic β-cells, which produce insulin, as well as whole islets of Langerhans from human donors to demonstrate that “environmentally relevant doses of BPA (1 nM) stimulated glucose-induced insulin secretion in human islets, giving a response which is almost twice the insulin release elicited by a stimulatory glucose concentration, 8 mM.”

According to media sources, the study pinpoints the mechanism by which BPA is thought to influence insulin production in pancreatic cells. “When you eat something with BPA, it’s like telling your organs that you are eating more than you are really eating,” explained one of the study’s co-authors in a February 15, 2012, HuffPost Green article, adding that the effect could be even more pronounced for developing fetuses. “The fetus is not only exposed to BPA but also to higher levels of insulin from the mother, making the environment for the fetus even more disruptive. This is a very delicate period.”