The unexpected action of bisphenol A on the inner ear of certain vertebrates
Bisphenol A, whose impact on reproduction and development is the subject of numerous studies, induces anomalies in the inner ear of embryos of certain vertebrates. This new, completely unsuspected effect has been demonstrated on zebrafish and Xenopus, a type of frog, by a French team headed by Vincent Laudet of the Institut de Genomique Fonctionnelle in collaboration with researchers from Inserm, the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle and INRA. Published in the journal BMC Developmental Biology, these results illustrate, for the first time, the sensitivity of the inner ear in vertebrates to bisphenol A. The study demonstrates that the effects of this chemical compound on the embryonic development of animals, including mammals, now needs to be explored in greater depth.