I was assigned Hunt et al. (2012) as a paper to present in one of my classes. This paper talks about the effect of BPA on the developing ovary in rhesus monkeys as a follow up to other studies that looked at effects in mice. Mice do not maintain estrogen levels throughout pregnancy and have different plantation and protein associated with the placenta when compared to the monkey. In terms of pregnancy monkeys are much closer to humans and using a primate model for research into chemical effects on reproduction is more applicable to humans. This paper is kind of scary in that they found that low level constant exposure changed chromosome behavior at the onset of meiosis (resulting in increased synaptic defects and chromosome interactions between non-homologous chromosomes) and failure of proper follicle formation later in development (many follicles contained multiple oocytes and there were large clusters of oocytes that were not in follicles). These defects could have long term implications because ovary structure can affect function and multioocyte follicles are usually targeted for apoptosis, which may decrease reproductive lifespan.

Hunt, P. A., Lawson, C., Gieske, M., Murdoch, B., Smith, H., Marre, A., … & VandeVoort, C. A. (2012). Bisphenol A alters early oogenesis and follicle formation in the fetal ovary of the rhesus monkey. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(43), 17525-17530.