Project description:Purpose: Then goal of this study id to investigate the effects of perinatal lead (32 ppm in maternal drinking water) and DEHP (25 mg per kg of chow) exposure on liver and blood DNA methylation in both PND21 and 5-month male and female mice. Methods: Enhanced reduced-representation bisulfite sequencing (ERRBS) was used to assess DNA methylation in PND21 and 5-month old DEHP-exposed, lead-exposed and control mice. Sex-specific differential methylaton analysis by DEHP and lead exposure was conducted using MethylSig R package. Results: We observed hundreds to thousands of stably modified, sex-specific differentially methylated regions in blood and liver of DEHP-exposed and lead-exposed animals at both PND21 and 5 months.
Project description:In the context of male reproductive health, epidemiological studies have observed reduced testis size and abnormal sperm counts and morphology in adult men exposed in utero, although these findings are not always repeated. The ambiguity of these reports is confounded by a lack of controlled animal studies investigating the effects of maternal cigarette smoke exposure on male offspring reproductive health. In this study we examined the effects of cigarette induced reproductive toxicity on male offspring exposed during the gestational and weaning period using our novel direct nasal exposure mouse model of cigarette smoke-induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and female subfertility. This was done too gain a better understanding of the adverse effects of gestational maternal smoking on male offspring fertility.
Project description:The objective of this study was to compare the biological and toxicological response of apolipoprotein E-deficient (Apoe-/-) mice to 3R4F mainstream smoke exposure for 2 months in whole-body exposure chambers (WBEC) and nose-only exposure chambers (NOEC). Female ApoE-/- mice were randomized into four groups: two Sham groups, exposed to filtered air, and two 3R4F groups, exposed to CS from the 3R4F reference cigarette (550 µg TPM/L). Half the number of mice in the Sham- and CS-exposed groups were exposed in WBECs and the other half in NOECs. The exposure phase lasted 9 weeks and included 1 week of adaption, during which exposure in both chamber types was escalated in dose and duration to a maximum of 4 h per day. The TPM concentration and exposure duration in WBECs were matched to those in NOECs on the basis of the regimen that the mice tolerated, as determined by in-life findings on acute signs of nicotine toxicity. Fresh air breaks were introduced during the exposure period to maintain carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) concentrations at acceptable levels. More frequent and longer fresh air breaks were required for exposure in the WBEC than in the NOEC because of the greater internal volume—and, consequently, the longer duration—required to clear smoke from the WBEC than from the NOEC. For animals in NOECs, a 30-min fresh air break was introduced after 2 and 3 h of exposure. For animals in WBECs, a 30-min fresh air break was introduced after 1 and 2 h of exposure and a 60-min fresh air break after the third hour of exposure. The general condition and health of the mice following exposure were monitored throughout the study. Full necropsy was performed 16-20 h after the last exposure without prior fasting, in accordance with previously described methods (Vanscheeuwijck et al., 2002). Differences between WBEC and NOEC expsoure were analyzed with regard to aerosol uptake, disease endpoints (adaptive changes in nasal epithelia, changes in lung function and inflammatory parameters, plasma cholesterol/triglyceride levels in lipoprotein fractions, and atherosclerosis plaque development), and systems biology endpoints (changes in the lung proteome and liver, nasal epithelial, and heart transcriptomes). All procedures involving animals were performed in a facility accredited by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International and licensed by the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore, with approval from an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and in compliance with the National Advisory Committee for Laboratory Animal Research Guidelines on the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes (NACLAR, 2004). Here, the protein expression data for lung tissue assessed by iTRAQ®-based quantitative proteomics will be described.
Project description:We used a mouse model of allergic lung disease to examine the effects of pre- and perinatal house dust mite (HDM) allergen exposure on offspring lung phenotypic and transcriptional outcomes. We showed that maternal HDM exposure (F0) acts synergistically with adult HDM exposure, leading to enhanced airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and lung inflammation when compared to mice exposed solely in adulthood. To examine the role of epigenetic inheritance of asthma susceptibility induced by maternal HDM exposure, we utilized a genome-wide MeDIP-seq and hMeDIP-seq analysis to identify genes differentially methylated (DMG) and hydroxymethylated (DHG), and their association with the enhanced AHR. In addition, we validated the relationship between DNA methylation and mRNA expression of the DMGs and DHGs in the male progenies.
Project description:In the context of male reproductive health, epidemiological studies have observed reduced testis size and abnormal sperm counts and morphology in adult men exposed in utero, although these findings are not always repeated. The ambiguity of these reports is confounded by a lack of controlled animal studies investigating the effects of maternal cigarette smoke exposure on male offspring reproductive health. In this study we examined the effects of cigarette induced reproductive toxicity on male offspring exposed during the gestational and weaning period using our novel direct nasal exposure mouse model of cigarette smoke-induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and female subfertility. This was done too gain a better understanding of the adverse effects of gestational maternal smoking on male offspring fertility. C57BL/6 5 week-old female mice were exposed via the nose-only to cigarette smoke [twelve 3R4F reference cigarettes (University of Kentucky, USA) twice/day, five times per week, for 12-18 weeks]. Each exposure lasted 60 minutes. Control mice received room air. In total, 27 mice underwent cigarette smoke exposure. Eleven week-old female mice exposed to cigarette smoke for 6 weeks were separated into groups of three and housed with a single control stud male aged 7-8 weeks with proven fertility for a maximum of 12 weeks. Females were monitored every second day for post-coital plugs and pregnancy. Pregnant females were separated into single cages and litter sizes/pup weights recorded. Smoke exposure via dams continued throughout mating/pregnancy/lactation until weaning of pups at 21days post birth. The testis of exposed offspring were then collected for RNA extraction and hybridization on an Illumina Sentrix Mouse ref-8 v2 Beadchip
Project description:561 mouse mRNA immunology panel. EVs isolated from mice 3 or 7 days after exposure to 2 or 9 Grays of WBIR and were exposed onto RAW 265.7 macrophages in the presence of LPS in order to assess the gene expression changes in order to analyze the effect of these EVs on the pro-inflammatory response of macrophages. All experimental groups were compared to the exposure of Sham EVs onto macrophages.
Project description:Toxicity of PBDE for male reproductive system was shown in several human and animal studies, however long lasting effects of perinatal exposures on male reproduction are yet poorly understood. In this study pregnant Wistar rats were exposed to 0.2 mg/kg 2,2’,4,4’-tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-47) from gestation day 8 till postnatal day 21 and testis transcriptome was analyzed on postnatal day 120 in offspring. Exposed animals had significant change in testes transcriptome including suppression of genes essential for spermatogenesis and activation of immune response genes. In particular exposed animals had on average 4 fold decreased expression of protamine and transition protein genes in testes suggesting that histone-protamine exchange may be dysregulated in the course of spermatogenesis resulting in exposure legacy transfer to the next generation via aberrant sperm epigenome.
Project description:There is increasing concern regarding the adverse effects of air pollution on human health, and benzene is a major toxic compound in air pollution. Maternal benzene exposure has been associated with reproductive complications, such as preterm birth, low birth weight, and immunological and neurological complications in the offspring. However, it is poorly understood how benzene induces these complications. Our objective was to establish a full body inhalation mouse model for maternal benzene exposure that mimics clinical phenotypes observed in human populations, and characterize the maternal immune activation and placental response in our model. Here, we report that maternal immune activation triggered by benzene exposure during pregnancy leads to increased resorptions, abnormal placenta development and low birth weight of fetus. More importantly, there is a sexual dimorphic response to benzene exposure in female and male placentas. In the male placenta, the transcriptome changes reveal a more immunologically relevant profile, while females have a metabolically related profile. Furthermore, we discover the sexual dimorphic response could be a consequence of the sexual dimorphism of placenta at baseline, which indicates the significant difference between sexes in terms of the immunological processes in the placenta, both in human and mouse. Therefore, our findings established a benzene exposure mouse model and indicated the sexual dimorphism of placenta, which provides valuable reference for the future pregnancy studies.