Orally administered bisphenol a in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss): estrogenicity, metabolism, and retention.

The estrogenic effect of orally administered bisphenol A (BPA) was investigated in a rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) test system. Bisphenol A was administered orally to sexually immature rainbow trout every second day for up to 12 d in doses between 1.8 and 258 mg/kg every second day (/2d). Plasma vitellogenin was measured before and during the exposures, and the concentrations of BPA in plasma, liver, and muscle and the plasma concentrations of BPA glucuronic acid (BPAGA) were determined at the end of the experiments. Increases in average plasma vitellogenin levels were seen at oral exposure to 24 mg BPA/kg/2d; the most sensitive fish responded to 9.3 mg/kg/2d. At day 12, the 10, 50, and 90% effective doses for increase in vitellogenin synthesis were 13, 19, and 25 mg/kg/2d, respectively. Bisphenol A could be detected in liver, muscle, and plasma at the end of the exposure, generally in increasing concentrations with increasing doses; liver concentrations generally were higher than muscle concentrations. Four to five hours after the last feeding of doses between 3.6 and 24 mg BPA/kg, plasma BPA concentrations ranged between 400 and 1,200 nM, whereas BPAGA concentrations were between 2- and 10-fold higher. The difference between BPA and BPAGA concentrations increased with increasing BPA dose. Bisphenol A showed little tendency to bioaccumulate in rainbow trout; less than 1% of the total amount of BPA administered orally at doses between 1.8 and 258 mg/ kg/2d over the 10- or 12-d experimental period was retained in muscle and liver at 5 or 24 h after the end of the experiments.