Human serum paraben levels and their associations with rheumatoid arthritis: a case-control study from Hangzhou, China

Human Exposure to Bisphenols, Parabens, and Benzophenones, and Its Relationship with the Inflammatory Response: A Systematic Review

“…Table 1 exhibits the main characteristics of the 20 studies [ 43 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 ]. All included studies were published in the last 15 years (2008–2023).…”

“…The reporting quality was classified as high in 15 studies (75.0%), while five studies (25.0%) had medium reporting quality [ 62 , 66 , 71 , 72 , 73 ]. The risk of bias was classified as very high in two studies [ 58 , 71 ], high in six studies [ 59 , 62 , 65 , 66 , 70 , 72 ], with some concerns in three studies [ 56 , 61 , 68 ], and low in nine studies [ 43 , 57 , 60 , 62 , 63 , 67 , 69 , 73 , 74 ] ( Figure 2 ). Taken together, the higher concerns were due to confounding, the measurement of the exposure, and missing data, as shown in Figure 3 .…”

“…Most of the studies used urine (13, 65.0%), while seven studies (35.0%) assessed the exposure in serum/plasma/blood samples. Regarding the families of chemicals assessed, 14 out 20 studies (70.0%) were focused on the exposure to bisphenols (mainly BPA), four (20.0%) on the exposure of the three families (bisphenols, PBs, and BPs) [ 43 , 57 , 63 , 66 ], one on bisphenols and PBs [ 71 ], and another only assessed PB concentrations [ 69 ]. The most frequently detected compounds were BPA [Frequency of detection (FD): 76.0–100%], MeP (FD: 97.0–100%), and BP-3 (FD: 99.7–100%).…”

“…Moreover, although most studies were focused on well-known inflammatory biomarkers such as CRP, IL-6, IL-10, IL-1α or IL-1β, more than 30 biomarkers of inflammation have been addressed (CRP, IL-1α, IL-1ra, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-7, IL-8, IL-9 IL-10, IL-12, IL-13, IL-15, IL-17a, IL-23, IL-33, TNF-α, TGF-β, IFN-γ, GM-CSF, MCP-1, MCP-3, MIP1-a, MIP1-b, VEGF, FGF-basic, eotaxin, PDGF-BB, RANTES, ALT, AST, and γ-GTP). More than a half of the studies included in this review ( n = 13, 65.0%) reported significant associations between any of the target EDCs included in this review and different inflammation parameters [ 43 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 63 , 65 , 66 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 72 , 74 ]. However, one-quarter of the selected studies were classified as medium reporting quality, and a certain degree of risk of bias was observed in more than half of the selected studies.…”

“…Briefly, BPA exposure was positively associated with a variety of pro-inflammatory biomarkers (CRP [ 58 , 60 , 64 , 74 ], IL-6 [ 59 , 60 , 70 ], IL-4 [ 68 ], IL-17A [ 66 ], IL-23 [ 66 ], IL-33 [ 56 ], MCP-1 [ 63 ], ALT [ 72 ], and γ-GTP [ 72 ]). Moreover, both MeP and PrP were associated with higher CRP levels [ 69 ], while MeP concentrations were also related to increased serum levels of IL-6 [ 57 ]. These results are in line with previous in vitro and in vivo studies reporting consistent positive associations between inflammation and exposure to bisphenols [ 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 ] and parabens [ 79 ].…”