Maternal or childhood exposure to chemical carcinogens has been suspected to develop cancers in adults. Particularly, exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), an endocrine disrupting chemical, in early age showed increase of endocrine-related cancers in adults through animal models. Thus, we performed biomonitoring of BPA and studied effects of BPA exposure on endocrine disorders in Korean girls. Urine samples were collected from age matched girls (n=38), who were endocrine disordered patients (n=25, 8.36±1.18 years) or were healthy controls (n=13, 8.36±1.33 years). Urinary BPA was analyzed with HPLC/FLD. Limit of detection (LOD) of BPA was 0.4Ռg/l. As results, ranges of urinary BPA were 0.25∼49.56Ռg/g creatinine (median, 4.67 Ռg/g creatinine). Urinary BPA was detected among 71.05% of the subjects. There were no differences in urinary BPA between the patients and the controls (9.41±12.25 vs. 5.44±4.53Ռg/g creatinine, p=0.65) or between the controls and sexual precocity- or premature thelarche-patients (p=0.84; p=0.37, respectively). Thus, our pilot study suggests that girls' endocrine disorders, e.g. sexual precocity- or premature thelarche, may be not the end points of BPA exposure. (Cancer Prev Res 15, 106-110, 2010)

Keywords: Bisphenol A, Children, Endocrine disorders, Sexual precocity, Premature thelarche, Girls