Roles of ERRα and TGF-β signaling in stemness enhancement induced by 1 µM bisphenol A exposure via human neural stem cells

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a common industrial chemical widely used to produce various plastics and is known to impair neural stem cells (NSCs). However, the effects of low-dose BPA exposure on the stemness maintenance and differentiation fate of NSCs remain unclear in the infant brain. The present study demonstrated that 1 µM BPA promoted human NSC proliferation and stemness, without significantly increasing apoptosis. The Chip-seq experiments demonstrated that both the cell cycle and the TGF-β signaling pathway were accelerated after treatment with 1 µM BPA. Subsequently, estrogen-related receptor α (ERRα) gene knockout cell lines were constructed using CRISPR/Cas9. Further western blotting and chromatin immunoprecipitation-PCR experiments demonstrated that BPA maintained cell stemness by binding to an EERα receptor and activating the TGF-β1 signaling pathway, including the downstream factors Aurora kinases B and Id2. In conclusion, the stemness of NSCs could be maintained by BPA at 1 µM through the activation of the ERRα and TGF-β1 signaling pathways and could restrain the differentiation of NSCs into neurons. The present research further clarified the mechanism of BPA toxicity on NSCs from the novel perspective of ERRα and TGF-β1 signaling pathways regulated by BPA and provided insights into potential novel methods of prevention and therapy for neurogenic diseases.