Dataset Information

The fetal ovary exhibits temporal sensitivity to a 'real-life' mixture of environmental chemicals.

ABSTRACT: The development of fetal ovarian follicles is a critical determinant of adult female reproductive competence. Prolonged exposure to environmental chemicals (ECs) can perturb this process with detrimental consequences for offspring. Here we report on the exposure of pregnant ewes to an environmental mixture of ECs derived from pastures fertilized with sewage sludge (biosolids): a common global agricultural practice. Exposure of pregnant ewes to ECs over 80 day periods during early, mid or late gestation reduced the proportion of healthy early stage fetal follicles comprising the ovarian reserve. Mid and late gestation EC exposures had the most marked effects, disturbing maternal and fetal liver chemical profiles, masculinising fetal anogenital distance and greatly increasing the number of altered fetal ovarian genes and proteins. In conclusion, differential temporal sensitivity of the fetus and its ovaries to EC mixtures has implications for adult ovarian function following adverse exposures during pregnancy.

SUBMITTER: Lea RG

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4773987 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

The fetal ovary exhibits temporal sensitivity to a 'real-life' mixture of environmental chemicals.

Lea Richard G RG Amezaga Maria R MR Loup Benoit B Mandon-Pépin Béatrice B Stefansdottir Agnes A Filis Panagiotis P Kyle Carol C Zhang Zulin Z Allen Ceri C Purdie Laura L Jouneau Luc L Cotinot Corinne C Rhind Stewart M SM Sinclair Kevin D KD Fowler Paul A PA

Scientific reports 20160302

The development of fetal ovarian follicles is a critical determinant of adult female reproductive competence. Prolonged exposure to environmental chemicals (ECs) can perturb this process with detrimental consequences for offspring. Here we report on the exposure of pregnant ewes to an environmental mixture of ECs derived from pastures fertilized with sewage sludge (biosolids): a common global agricultural practice. Exposure of pregnant ewes to ECs over 80 day periods during early, mid or late ge ...[more]

PMID: 26931299

Similar Datasets

Project description:Humans are chronically exposed to a mixture of environmental chemicals (ECs), many with endocrine disrupting potential, contributing to the development of non-communicable diseases. The adverse health effects of exposure to single ECs have been extensively studied but less is known about the impact of chronic exposure to low levels of a mixture of ECs, which is the real-life exposure scenario. Biosolids, derived from human wastewater treatment, closely reflects the human exposome in both the array and concentration of ECs and is a novel, real-life model to investigate the health risks posed by developmental exposure to mixtures of ECs. Previous studies using the prenatal biosolids exposure model found an increased accumulation of the endocrine disrupting chemical diethylhexylphthalate in the fetal liver and metabolic perturbations including increased thyroid gland weight in the male fetus and reduced bodyweight in prepubertal male lambs. To understand the basis of this sexually dimorphic metabolic phenotype we investigated the transcriptome of liver, the primary metabolic organ, in lambs of both sexes. Since many liver genes show sexual dimorphism, with sex-biased genes playing a pivotal role in lipid and drug metabolism, sex-differences in liver gene expression and the impact of prenatal biosolids exposure on it was examined. We hypothesized that maternal preconceptional and gestational exposure of sheep to biosolids programs sex-specific transcriptional changes in the offspring liver. Ewes (F0) were grazed on either inorganic fertilizer (Control) or biosolids-treated pastures (Biosolids) from 1 month before mating till parturition. All lambs (F1) were raised on control pastures after lambing until euthanasia at 9.5 weeks of age. RNA from liver from Control male (n=7), Control female (n=8), BTP male (n=7) and BTP female (n=8) lambs were subjected to next generation sequencing and DESeq2 R package was used to identify differentially expressed genes due to prenatal biosolids exposure and sex-differentially expressed genes .

Dataset Information

The fetal ovary exhibits temporal sensitivity to a 'real-life' mixture of environmental chemicals.

Publications

The fetal ovary exhibits temporal sensitivity to a 'real-life' mixture of environmental chemicals.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets