Effects of bisphenol A exposure during cardiac cell differentiation

Heart development requires a precise temporal regulation of gene expression in cardiomyoblasts. Therefore, the transcriptional changes in differentiating cells can lead to congenital heart diseases. Although the genetic mutations underlie most of these alterations, exposure to environmental contaminants, such as bisphenol A (BPA), has been recently considered as a risk factor as well. In this study we investigated the genotoxic and epigenotoxic effects of BPA throughout cardiomyocyte differentiation. H9c2 cells (rat myoblasts) were exposed to 10 and 30 μM BPA before and during the last two days of cardiac-driven differentiation. Then, we have analysed the phenotypic and molecular modifications (at transcriptional, genetic and epigenetic level). The results showed that treated myoblasts developed a skeletal muscle cell-like phenotype. The transcriptional changes induced by BPA in genes codifying proteins involved in heart differentiation and function depend on the window of exposure to BPA. The exposure before differentiation repressed the expression of heart transcription factors (Hand2 and Gata4), whereas exposure during differentiation reduced the expression of cardiac-specific genes (Tnnt2, Myom2, Sln, and Atp2a1). Additionally, significant effects were observed regarding DNA damage and histone acetylation levels after the two periods of BPA exposure: in cells exposed to the toxicant the percentage of DNA repair foci (formed by the co-localization of γH2AX and 53BP1) increased in a dose-dependent manner, whereas the treatment with the toxicant triggered a decrease in the epigenetic marks H3K9ac and H3K27ac. Our in vitro results reveal that BPA seriously interferes with the process of cardiomyocyte differentiation, which could be related to the reported in vivo effects of this toxicant on cardiogenesis.