Concentrations of parabens in human breast tumours

Abstract

Parabens are used as preservatives in many thousands of cosmetic, food and pharmaceutical products to which the human population is exposed. Although recent reports of the oestrogenic properties of parabens have challenged current concepts of their toxicity in these consumer products, the question remains as to whether any of the parabens can accumulate intact in the body from the long-term, low-dose levels to which humans are exposed. Initial studies reported here show that parabens can be extracted from human breast tissue and detected by thin-layer chromatography. More detailed studies enabled identification and measurement of mean concentrations of individual parabens in samples of 20 human breast tumours by high-pressure liquid chromatography followed by tandem mass spectrometry. The mean concentration of parabens in these 20 human breast tumours was found to be 20.6 +/- 4.2 ng x g(-1) tissue. Comparison of individual parabens showed that methylparaben was present at the highest level (with a mean value of 12.8 +/- 2.2 ng x g(-1) tissue) and represents 62% of the total paraben recovered in the extractions. These studies demonstrate that parabens can be found intact in the human breast and this should open the way technically for more detailed information to be obtained on body burdens of parabens and in particular whether body burdens are different in cancer from those in normal tissues.

Comment on: Construction of simplified models to simulate estrogenic disruptions by esters of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (parabens). Patricia Guadarrama, Serguei Fomine, Roberto Salcedo, Ana Martínez. Biophys. Chem. 137 (2008) 1–6. doi:10.1016/j.bpc2008.06.001

“…The authors' claim that the results obtained are in agreement with experimental studies of extraction and quantification of parabens in tumours is totally illogical, since the study to which the authors refer, by Darbre et al [4] contains no determination of oestrogenic activity, and only claims to have detected the presence of parabens in the tumours. There is no connection between the presence of parabens and their relative potency as oestrogen mimics as neither the presence, nor the relative concentrations present can be indicative of relative oestrogenic activity.…”

Impact of Environmental Contaminants on Breast Cancer / Wpływ Zanieczyszczenia Środowiska Na Raka Piersi

“…In non-cancerous tissue only MeP was detected (26.6 ng · g −1 ) in an order of magnitude lower than the mean concentration of MeP from cancerous tissues. On the other hand, the mean value of the total paraben concentration in breast tumour tissues estimated by Dabre et al [176] was 20.6±4.2 ng · g −1 , ie by two orders lower than the above reported values, which could be connected with the enhanced detectability of the compounds and peak area intensity due to derivatization applied by Shanmugam et al [175]. Moreover, the occurrence of parabens in the unaffected breast tissue adjacent to cancer was found in nearly all of the studied samples (99%, n = 160), at the total median paraben concentration of 85.5 ng · g −1 (range 0-5134.5 ng · g −1 ) [177].…”

Avaliação da toxicidade de parabenos em cosméticos

“…Os efeitos tóxicos mais relatados pela utilização de parabenos são reações alérgicas, que podem aparecer tanto no local de aplicação como em locais diferentes do corpo, podendo ser identificada através de eritema, edema e secreção; Além de relatos sobre possível efeito estrogênico e a relação da presença de parabenos no organismo com o aparecimento de câncer de mama, segundo Darbre (2004).…”