Abstract

Xenoestrogens are chemicals found in plant products, such as genistein (GEN), and in industrial chemicals, e.g., bisphenol A (BPA), present in plastics and other products that are prevalent in the environment. Early exposure to such endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC) may affect brain development by directly disrupting neural programming and/or through the microbiome-gut-brain axis. To test this hypothesis, California mice (Peromyscus californicus) offspring were exposed through the maternal diet to GEN (250 mg/kg feed weight) or BPA (5 mg/kg feed weight, low dose- LD or 50 mg/kg, upper dose-UD), and dams were placed on these diets two weeks prior to breeding, throughout gestation, and lactation. Various behaviors, gut microbiota, and fecal metabolome were assessed at 90 days of age. The LD but not UD of BPA exposure resulted in individuals spending more time engaging in repetitive behaviors. GEN exposed individuals were more likely to exhibit such behaviors and showed socio-communicative disturbances. BPA and GEN exposed females had increased number of metabolites involved in carbohydrate metabolism and synthesis. Males exposed to BPA or GEN showed alterations in lysine degradation and phenylalanine and tyrosine metabolism. Current findings indicate cause for concern that developmental exposure to BPA or GEN might affect the microbiome-gut-brain axis.

Highlights

  • Xenoestrogens are chemicals found in plant products, such as genistein (GEN), and in industrial chemicals, e.g., bisphenol A (BPA), present in plastics and other products that are prevalent in the environment

  • While developmental exposure to BPA and GEN may lead to later neurobehavioral disruptions by directly affecting neural programming, it is clear that these chemicals can induce changes in the gut microbiota composition, which in turn can impact the microbiome-gut-brain a­ xis[21]

  • We found that pre- and post-natal exposure of male and female California mice to GEN resulted at weaning in several gut microbiota and metabolome changes, and these changes were associated with disruptions in socio-communication b­ ehaviors[20]

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Summary

Introduction

Xenoestrogens are chemicals found in plant products, such as genistein (GEN), and in industrial chemicals, e.g., bisphenol A (BPA), present in plastics and other products that are prevalent in the environment Exposure to such endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC) may affect brain development by directly disrupting neural programming and/or through the microbiome-gut-brain axis. To test this hypothesis, California mice (Peromyscus californicus) offspring were exposed through the maternal diet to GEN (250 mg/kg feed weight) or BPA (5 mg/kg feed weight, low doseLD or 50 mg/kg, upper dose-UD), and dams were placed on these diets two weeks prior to breeding, throughout gestation, and lactation. Past rodent model studies testing the effects of perinatal BPA diet exposure have shown sex- and generational-dependent differences in gut microbiota compositions result when compared to those derived from dams maintained on a control, phytoestrogen-free ­diet[22]. Rodent models, and zebrafish provide further evidence that BPA affects gut bacterial p­ opulations[25,26,27,28,29]

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