Maternal Zearalenone exposure impacted ovarian follicle formation and development of suckled offspring.
Sci Total Environ
; 788: 147792, 2021 Sep 20.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34134368
ABSTRACT
Zearalenone (ZEN) is a secondary metabolite, which is mainly produced by Fusarium fungi and exists in various feeds and agricultural products. Recently, an increasing amount of data has shown that ZEN, as an estrogen-like hormone, can have harmful effects on the female reproductive system, especially on oogenesis and folliculogenesis. Breast milk is considered to be the ideal form of nutrition for infants; however, there are some records of contaminants in food, such as mycotoxins, which may be transferred from maternal blood to milk. In this study, we investigated the toxic effects of breast milk on folliculogenesis in offspring following maternal ZEN exposure. Our results showed that maternal ZEN exposure significantly inhibited the process of primordial follicle (PF) assembly and reduced the number of PFs in suckled offspring's ovaries. In addition, RNA-seq analysis showed that RIG-I-like receptor (RLRs) signaling pathways were activated after exposed to ZEN, which increased the expression levels of DNA damage (γ-H2AX, RAD51, and PARP1) and apoptosis related protein (BAX/BCL2 and Caspase-3). Finally, ZEN exposure interfered with follicular development, as evidenced by the reduced percentages of oocyte maturation and embryonic development when the offspring grew to adolescence. It is worth noting that maternal ZEN exposure disrupted the tri-methylation levels of H3K4, H3K9, and H3K27 in the offspring's oocytes. Our results indicated that maternal ZEN exposure affected ovarian development in offspring through the breast milk, which may be detrimental to their reproductive capability in adult life.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Zearalenone
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Pregnancy
Language:
En
Journal:
Sci Total Environ
Year:
2021
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
China
Publication country:
HOLANDA
/
HOLLAND
/
NETHERLANDS
/
NL
/
PAISES BAJOS
/
THE NETHERLANDS