In Utero Exposure to Diethylhexyl Phthalate Affects Rat Brain Development: A Behavioral and Genomic Approach

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Han Lin²  Kaiming Yuan²  Linyan Li²  Shiwen Liu²  Senlin Li²  Guoxin Hu²  Qing-Quan Lian¹  Ren-Shan Ge¹ 

[1]Department of Anesthesiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital & Yuying Children's Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325000, Zhejiang, China

关键词: DEHP;    proliferation;    cognitive function;    rat;    brain development;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph121113696

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) is one of the most widely utilized phthalate plasticizers. Previous studies have demonstrated that gestational or postnatal DEHP exposure induced adverse effects on rat brain development and function. In this study, we investigated the effects of gestational DEHP exposure on gene expression profiling in neonatal rat brain and cognitive function change at adulthood. Adult Sprague Dawley dams were orally treated with 10 or 750 mg/kg DEHP from gestational day 12 to 21. Some male pups were euthanized at postnatal day 1 for gene expression profiling, and the rest males were retained for water maze testing on postnatal day (PND) 56. DEHP showed dose-dependent impairment of learning and spatial memory from PND 56 to 63. Genome-wide microarray analysis showed that 10 and 750 mg/kg DEHP altered the gene expression in the neonatal rat brain. Ccnd1 and Cdc2, two critical genes for neuron proliferation, were significantly down-regulated by DEHP. Interestingly, 750 mg/kg DEHP significantly increased Pmch level. Our study demonstrated the changed gene expression patterns after in utero DEHP exposure might partially contribute to the deficit of cognitive function at adulthood.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.