Astrocyte-derived exosomes regulate sperm miR-34c levels to mediate the transgenerational effects of paternal chronic social instability stress.

ABSTRACT: The effects of chronically stressing male mice can be transmitted across generations by stress-specific changes in their sperm miRNA content, which induce stress-specific phenotypes in their offspring. However, how each stress paradigm alters the levels of distinct sets of sperm miRNAs is not known. We showed previously that exposure of male mice to chronic social instability (CSI) stress results in elevated anxiety and reduced sociability specifically in their female offspring across multiple generations because it reduces miR-34c levels in sperm of stressed males and their unstressed male offspring. Here, we describe evidence that astrocyte-derived exosomes (A-Exos) carrying miR-34c mediate how CSI stress has this transgenerational effect on sperm. We found that CSI stress decreases miR-

SUBMITTER: Champroux A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11776480 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature