Review on bisphenol A and the risk of polycystic ovarian syndrome: an insight from endocrine and gene expression

Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the most widely studied endocrine disrupting chemicals because of its structural similarity to 17-β estradiol; its ability to bind as an agonist/antagonist to estrogen receptors elicits adverse effects on the functioning of the metabolic and endocrinal system. Therefore, BPA has been thoroughly scrutinized concerning its disruption of pathways like lipid metabolism, steroidogenesis, insulin signaling, and inflammation. This has resulted in reports of its correlation with various aspects of cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes, male and female reproductive disorders, and dysfunctions. Among these, the occurrence of the polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) in premenopausal women is of great concern. PCOS is a highly prevalent disorder affecting women in their reproductive age and is clinically characterized by hyperandrogenism, ovulatory dysfunction, and polycystic ovarian morphology, along with metabolism-related dysfunctions like hyperinsulinemia, obesity, and insulin resistance. In this review, we analyzed certain researched effects of BPA, while focusing on its ability to alter the expression of various significant genes like GnRH, AdipoQ, ESR1, StAR, CYP11A1, CYP19A1, and many more involved in the pathways and endocrine regulation, whose disruption is commonly associated with the clinical manifestations of PCOS.