Citation:

Knudsen, G., K. McIntosh, J. Sanders, M. Hughes, AND L. Birnbaum. Dermal uptake of Tetrabromobisphenol A TBBPA by female Wistar Han rat and human skin. Society of Toxicology, San Diego, CA, March 22 - 27, 2015.

Impact/Purpose:

To be presented at the 2015 SOT Meeting

Description:

TBBPA, a brominated analog of Bisphenol A, is the highest production volume brominated flame retardant in production and human exposure is ubiquitous. Although the major route of exposure to TBBPA is oral uptake, skin penetration is possible. In the studies presented here, the dermal penetrance of TBBPA was determined using human and female Wistar Han rat skin in vitro and compared to that of rat skin exposed in vivo. Split-thickness human and rat skin samples were administered a dose of 100 nmol/cm2 skin (~1 µCi [14C]/cm2) of TBBPA and absorption and penetrance were determined using a flow-through system. Receptor vials collected the flow system fluid at 6 hour intervals for 24 hours. Approximately 0.2% of the administered dose penetrated the human skin samples while 3.4% was found to be absorbed for a total dermal bioavailable fraction of 3.6%. Rat skin had an average penetration of 3.5% and 9.3% absorption. In vivo studies investigating a similar or 10-fold higher dose (92 and 920 nmol/cm2) applied to rats found approx. 25% and 12% of the applied [14C]-radioactivity was bioavailable. These studies indicate that TBBPA has the potential to be absorbed by the skin and dermal contact with TBBPA may represent a small but relevant route of exposure. This work was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health [Project ZIA BC 011476]. This abstract does not necessarily represent US EPA policy.

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