Johnson Sarah A, Ellersieck Mark R, Rosenfeld Cheryl S
Bond Life Sciences Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
Heliyon. 2018 Jun 29;4(6):e00672. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e00672. eCollection 2018 Jun.
Bisphenol A (BPA) is a pervasive industrial chemical used in many common household items. To examine how early exposure to BPA and ethinyl estradiol (EE, estrogen in birth control pill) might affect biparental care, effects of these chemicals in male and female California mice (), who are monogamous and biparental, were examined. California mice exposed during pre- and peri-natal life to BPA at an environmentally relevant concentration or EE show later disrupted biparental behaviors. The hypothalamus is an important brain region for regulating parental behaviors. Thus, it was hypothesized compromised biparental care might be partially due to hypothalamic gene alterations. To address this question, brains from F parenting female and male California mice from controls, BPA- and EE-exposed groups were collected at postnatal day (PND) 2, and RNA was isolated from hypothalamic micropunches. Gene expression was examined in this brain region for genes affected by BPA exposure and attributed to governing parental care in rodents and humans. BPA-exposed California mice showed increased hypothalamic expression of and relative to AIN control and EE-exposed parents in the case of . Notably, current studies represent the first report to show that early exposure to BPA can induce longstanding effects on hypothalamic gene expression in parenting male and female rodents. Absence of such hypothalamic gene expression changes in EE-exposed parents indicates early BPA exposure may induce later transcriptomic effects through estrogen receptor-independent pathways. BPA-driven changes in hypothalamic function of California mice might contribute to decreased biparental investment, which could result in F multigenerational effects.
双酚A（BPA）是一种广泛应用于许多常见家居用品中的工业化学品。为了研究早期接触双酚A和乙炔雌二醇（EE，避孕药中的雌激素）如何影响双亲养育行为，研究了这些化学物质对实行一夫一妻制且双亲共同养育后代的加利福尼亚小鼠雌雄两性的影响。在产前和围产期接触环境相关浓度双酚A或乙炔雌二醇的加利福尼亚小鼠，后期会出现双亲养育行为紊乱。下丘脑是调节双亲行为的重要脑区。因此，有人推测双亲养育行为受损可能部分归因于下丘脑基因改变。为了解决这个问题，在出生后第2天（PND 2）收集了来自对照组、双酚A暴露组和乙炔雌二醇暴露组的F代双亲养育行为的加利福尼亚小鼠雌雄两性的大脑，并从下丘脑微穿孔中分离出RNA。对该脑区中受双酚A暴露影响且在啮齿动物和人类中与双亲养育行为相关的基因的表达进行了检测。与AIN对照组和乙炔雌二醇暴露组的双亲相比，双酚A暴露的加利福尼亚小鼠下丘脑 和 基因的表达增加，在 基因方面尤其明显。值得注意的是，目前的研究首次表明，早期接触双酚A可对养育后代的啮齿动物雌雄两性的下丘脑基因表达产生长期影响。乙炔雌二醇暴露组的双亲未出现这种下丘脑基因表达变化，这表明早期双酚A暴露可能通过不依赖雌激素受体的途径诱导后期的转录组效应。双酚A导致的加利福尼亚小鼠下丘脑功能变化可能会导致双亲投资减少，进而可能产生F代多代效应。
