Effects of low bisphenol A concentration on protein expression profiles in an in vitro model of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an environmental toxicant that causes adverse effects to liver even at low concentrations. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) presents as significant accumulation of lipids in the liver, impairing detoxification processes. Nevertheless, little information is available regarding the susceptibility of NAFLD to BPA toxicity. Here, we compared the effects of low concentration BPA exposure on the protein profiles of normal and NAFLD cells. We established NAFLD model by treating HepG2 cells with fatty acids and subsequently treated with low BPA concentration. Protein expression profiles showed that four proteins from normal cells and nine proteins from NAFLD cells were dysregulated after BPA treatment. A pathway analysis revealed decreased expression of translation elongation factor proteins in NAFLD cells following BPA treatment and this down-regulation was confirmed by immunoblotting. Our findings suggest that BPA toxicity is more deleterious, especially to translation elongation, in NAFLD cells than normal cells.