IMPACT OF THE UV FILTER BENZOPHENONE-3 ON FERTILITY: LESSONS FROM IN VIVO AND IN VITRO MODELS

RODRIGUEZ, HORACIO

MEDICINA (BUENOS AIRES)

MEDICINA (BUENOS AIRES)

Año: 2022 vol. 82 p. 37 - 37

0025-7680

We are continuously exposed to chemicals included inpersonal care products (PCP) that may affect our health.Benzophenone 3 (BP3) is commonly used in sunscreensand other PCP due to its UV blocking efficacy. Severalstudies have evidenced that BP3 can act as an endocrinedisrupting chemical (EDC). Our interest was to establishif some critical processes for fertility can be identified astargets of BP3 action. In first place we have shown thatprenatal dermal exposure to BP3 affected fetal growth ofthe progeny in mice, inducing a fetal growth restriction(FGR) phenotype. In another experiment with a longerprenatal period of dermal exposure, we showed thatpregnant mice exposed to BP3 have reduced the sizeof whole implantation sites (WIS) and fetus-placental index(FPI), leading to lower weights of fetuses compatiblewith FGR. Moreover, these growth abnormalities of fetuseswere linked to an impaired spiral artery remodeling(SAR) in decidua of BP3-exposed mothers together withreduced presence of NK cells. Then, using an in vitromodel of anchoring and implantation of murine blastocysts,we found that BP3-treated embryos displayed significantdelayed hatching and attachment, demonstratingthat BP3 can exert a direct action on early embryo development.This delay lead to a drastic reduction of implantationarea at 6th day of culture. We also found thatBP3 reduced the migration ability of human trophoblastcells (Swan 71), which restored to normal values whencells were exposed to BP3+flutamide, an AR inhibitor.On the other hand, we observed that prenatal exposurein two successive pregnancies to BP3 alone or in combinationwith bisphenol A (BPA), another common EDC,impaired the ability of the ovary to respond to gonadotropinsstimulation. Then, we aimed to identify the effectson the offspring caused by a perinatal exposure to BP-3comprising gestation and breastfeeding. Performing aforced-breeding protocol with the offspring born to mothersperinatally exposed to BP3, we observed a decreaseof pups/mother and deliveries/mother, not linked to oocytedepletion. Taking together, these results showedthat exposure to BP3 can affect different processes necessaryfor an optimal fertility. Some of these results wereincluded by SCCS (European Commission’s ScientificCommittee on Consumer Safety) in their last opinion onBP3, recommending the reduction of the maximum percentageof BP3 allowed in sunscreens.