Martz Julia, Hammer Baila, Langen Tristen J, Berkowitz Benjamin, Berkowitz Benzion, Storm Jasmyne A, Lu Jueqin, Lehri Deepali, Wijenayake Sanoji, Marrocco Jordan, Kentner Amanda C
bioRxiv. 2025 Jun 27:2025.05.30.656911. doi: 10.1101/2025.05.30.656911.
Parental communication signals are transmitted through nursing and critically shape neurodevelopmental trajectories. Mirroring some well characterized effects of gestational challenges in rodents, maternal immune activation (MIA) during the lactational period disrupts maternal physiology, decreases milk quality, and is associated with adverse neurobehavioral outcomes in offspring. This occurs without MIA significantly affecting maternal care. While gestational MIA models are responsive to environmental interventions, which beneficially alter maternal milk composition and associated offspring outcomes, the milk-borne mediators underlying resilience remain poorly understood. Given their ability to transport and deposit biologically active cargos, we propose that milk-derived extracellular vesicles (MEVs) are vehicles that deliver environmental programming signals (e.g., miRNAs) from nursing mothers to their offspring. Using a rat model, we show that lactational MIA altered MEV miRNA cargo and expression of hippocampal miRNAs in offspring. Several miRNAs in MEVs were also found in the hippocampus of matching offspring. Remarkably, the miRNA dysregulation observed in MEVs and hippocampus was rescued when dams were raised in an enriched environment, suggesting environmental enrichment protected from the effects of MIA, as also observed in the behavioral phenotype. RNA-seq of adult offspring hippocampus showed long-term transcriptional changes associated with the gene targets of early-life regulated miRNAs. Our results position MEV miRNA cargos as dynamic programming signals by which maternal experience is communicated to offspring, encoding both stress-induced and protective cues that influence development. This suggests that breastfeeding interventions can regulate the genetic cargo of the milk, programming the life of developing infants.
亲代交流信号通过哺乳传递,并对神经发育轨迹产生关键影响。哺乳期母体免疫激活(MIA)会反映出啮齿动物孕期挑战的一些特征性影响,它会扰乱母体生理机能,降低乳汁质量,并与后代不良神经行为结果相关。这种情况发生时,MIA并不会显著影响母体护理行为。虽然孕期MIA模型对环境干预有反应,环境干预能有益地改变母体乳汁成分及相关的后代结局,但恢复力背后的乳汁介导因子仍知之甚少。鉴于其运输和沉积生物活性物质的能力,我们提出乳汁来源的细胞外囊泡(MEV)是将环境编程信号(如微小RNA)从哺乳母亲传递给其后代的载体。使用大鼠模型,我们发现哺乳期MIA改变了后代MEV微小RNA的货物组成以及海马体微小RNA的表达。在匹配后代的海马体中也发现了MEV中的几种微小RNA。值得注意的是,当母鼠在丰富环境中饲养时,MEV和海马体中观察到的微小RNA失调得到了纠正,这表明环境丰富化可保护免受MIA的影响,行为表型中也观察到了这一点。成年后代海马体的RNA测序显示与早期调控微小RNA的基因靶点相关的长期转录变化。我们的研究结果将MEV微小RNA货物定位为动态编程信号,通过该信号母体经验传递给后代,编码影响发育的应激诱导和保护线索。这表明母乳喂养干预可以调节乳汁的基因物质,为发育中的婴儿的生命编程。