ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Experimental Endocrinology
Metabolic consequences of perinatal bisphenol A and 17α-Ethinylestradiol exposure manifest in circadian alterations of energy homeostasis in adult male mice
Provisionally accepted
- Institute of Experimental Medicine (MTA), Budapest, Hungary
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Introduction: Environmental estrogenic chemicals can cross the maternal–fetal barrier and disrupt endocrine and metabolic regulation in the developing embryo/fetus. Bisphenol A (BPA) and 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) are widely present in the environment and have been linked to increased cardio-metabolic disease risk. Purpose: This study investigated the effects of maternal BPA and EE2 exposure on metabolic function and circadian energy regulation in male offspring. Methods: Pregnant and lactating dams were chronically administered BPA (20 µg/kg bw/day) or EE2 (0.01 µg/kg bw/day) via osmotic minipumps from gestational day 9 to postnatal day 21 to mimic environmental exposure. Adult male offspring (60–80 days old) were assessed for body composition, fasting glucose, and metabolic and activity parameters using the TSE Phenomaster system. Results: BPA-exposed offspring exhibited reduced lean body mass, fat mass, fat ratio, and 24-hour fasting glucose levels compared to controls and EE2-exposed offspring. Both BPA-and EE2-exposed groups showed altered circadian patterns of locomotor activity, food intake, energy expenditure, and respiratory exchange ratio, with effects predominantly occurring during the night phase. Conclusions: Maternal exposure to environmentally relevant doses of BPA or EE2 can alter the development and function of metabolic regulatory systems, producing distinct disruptions in circadian energy homeostasis in adult offspring. These differential effects likely reflect the partially overlapping yet distinct organizational and activational pathways through which these endocrine-disrupting chemicals act during the perinatal period.
Keywords: bisphenol A, ethinylestradiol, Circadian Rhythm, food intake, energy homeostasis, Locomotion, Endocrine disruptor
Received: 16 Sep 2025; Accepted: 25 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kalló, Kádár, Göblyös, Vastagh, Pap, Fekete and Liposits. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Imre Kalló
Zsolt Liposits
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.