Study on anti-androgenic effects of bisphenol a diglycidyl ether (BADGE), bisphenol F diglycidyl ether (BFDGE) and their derivatives using cells stably transfected with human androgen receptor, AR-EcoScreen.

We studied in vitro hormonal activity of bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (BADGE) and bisphenol F diglycidyl ether (BFDGE), which are used as a material of interior coating for food cans. We also examined related compounds such as 2,2-bis4-(3-chloro-2-hydroxypropoxy)phenyl]propane (BADGE.2HCl), and bis4-(3-chloro-2-hydroxypropoxy)phenyl]methane (BFDGE.2HCl) etc. For this purpose, we constructed two stably transfected CHO-K1 cell lines (AR-EcoScreen for androgenic activity and c-luc for cell toxicity evaluation). One stably expresses luciferase with induction of androgen. The other stably expresses luciferase without androgen induction. Also, we have determined the androgenic and anti-androgenic effects of the test chemicals by reporter gene assay with these cell lines. None of the chemicals tested by this assay exhibited androgen agonistic activity. However, BADGE.2HCl and BFDGE.2HCl had the conspicuous antagonistic activity for androgen. These compounds had a high binding affinity for androgen receptor. Furthermore, these two compounds did not show the estrogenic activity in vitro assays. On the contrary, bisphenol A and bisphenol F exhibited anti-androgenic activity in vitro in addition to the estrogenic activity. These results suggest that these chlorohydroxy compounds of BADGE and BFDGE act as androgen antagonist through the process of binding to androgen receptor.