Project description:Rates of oxytocin use to induce or augment labor are increasing in the United States with little understanding of the impact on offspring development. Using a prairie vole animal model, we have shown that oxytocin administered to mothers can reach offspring brains with long lasting impacts on the development of social behaviors. Here, we examine the epigenetic and transcriptomic consequences of oxytocin exposure during birth in juvenile male offspring. First, we show that male offspring exposed to oxytocin at birth have increased epigenetic age compared to the saline exposed group. We also find 900 differentially methylated CpG sites (annotated to 589 genes), with 2 CpG sites (2 genes) remaining significant after correction for multiple comparisons. Differentially methylated CpG sites are involved in regulation of gene expression and neurodevelopment. Using RNA-sequencing we find 217 nominally differentially expressed genes (p<0.05) in nucleus accumbens, a brain region involved in reward circuitry and social behavior, including 6 genes that remain significantly differentially expressed after corrections for multiple comparisons. Finally, we show that maternal oxytocin administration leads to widespread alternative splicing in the nucleus accumbens. These results indicate that oxytocin exposure during birth has long lasting epigenetic consequences in the brain and warrant further investigation of how oxytocin administration impacts development and behavior throughout the lifespan.
Project description:Rates of oxytocin use to induce or augment labor are increasing in the United States with little understanding of the impact on offspring development. Using a prairie vole animal model, we have shown that oxytocin administered to mothers can reach offspring brains with long lasting impacts on the development of social behaviors. Here, we examine the epigenetic and transcriptomic consequences of oxytocin exposure during birth in juvenile male offspring. First, we show that male offspring exposed to oxytocin at birth have increased epigenetic age compared to the saline exposed group. We also find 900 differentially methylated CpG sites (annotated to 589 genes), with 2 CpG sites (2 genes) remaining significant after correction for multiple comparisons. Differentially methylated CpG sites are involved in regulation of gene expression and neurodevelopment. Using RNA-sequencing we find 217 nominally differentially expressed genes (p<0.05) in nucleus accumbens, a brain region involved in reward circuitry and social behavior, including 6 genes that remain significantly differentially expressed after corrections for multiple comparisons. Finally, we show that maternal oxytocin administration leads to widespread alternative splicing in the nucleus accumbens. These results indicate that oxytocin exposure during birth has long lasting epigenetic consequences in the brain and warrant further investigation of how oxytocin administration impacts development and behavior throughout the lifespan.
Project description:We report changes in the medial prefrontal cortical transcriptome of male and female rat offspring after induced birth with oxytocin using RNA-seq analysis.
Project description:Advanced Maternal Age (AMA) is a risk factor for neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders in offspring. We developed a mouse model to investigate whether pregnancy at advanced age may provoke behavioral and brain gene expression changes in offspring. Mice conceived by 15- to 18-month-old (15-18M) or 3M control females were delivered by cesarean section and were all fostered after birth by 3M dams. Genome-wide mRNA expression was analyzed using microarrays in the hippocampus of 4M male offspring. In conclusion, pregnancy at advanced age yields offspring with altered patterns of gene expression in the hippocampus, typical of human neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. The effects were not reversed by the postnatal maternal care provided by young foster mothers. This suggests that prenatal conditions associated with AMA may negatively affect fetal brain development and hence postnatal behaviors. This work was supported by the Polish National Science Center (2014/15/D/NZ4/04274 to SS and 2011/03/N/NZ29/05222 to AMS) and European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013-n 312097 to GEP). This work was also partially supported by Institute of Genetics and Animal Breeding of the Polish Academy of Sciences (S.III.1.3 to JAM) and by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (N N519 657940 to JG). SS, FZ and GEP are participating in the COST action FA1201 ‘Epiconcept’ - Epigenetic and Periconception Environment.
Project description:Cecal microbiome of C-, WD- and REV-dams at weaning and in their offspring (C-offspring, WD-offspring, and REV-offspring, respectively) at 4 months.
Project description:The mechanisms controlling genome methylation during human embryogenesis remain largely unknown. Here we provide evidence that maternal age at pregnancy permanently alters the epigenetic profile of offspring. We measured DNA methylation in blood at over 450,000 CpGs across the epigenome in 890 newborns.