Abstract
Chemicals used in unconventional oil and gas (UOG) operations can act as endocrine disrupting chemicals and metabolic disruptors. Our lab has reported altered energy expenditure and activity in C57BL/6J mice that were preconceptionally, gestationally, and lactationally exposed via maternal drinking water to a laboratory-created mixture of 23 UOG chemicals from gestational day 1 to postnatal day 21 in 7-month-old female mice with no change in body composition. We hypothesized that allowing the mice to age and exposing them to a high fat, high sugar diet might reveal underlying changes in energy balance. To investigate whether aging and metabolic challenge would exacerbate this phenotype, these mice were aged to 12 months and given a high fat, high sugar diet (HFHSD) challenge. The short 3-day HFHSD challenge increased body weight and fasting blood glucose in all mice. Developmental exposure to the 23 UOG mixture was associated with increased activity and non-resting energy expenditure in the light cycle, increased exploratory behavior in the elevated plus maze test, and decreased sleep in 12 month female mice. Each of these effects was seen in the light cycle when mice are normally less active. Further studies are needed to better understand the behavioral changes observed after developmental exposure to UOG chemicals.
Highlights
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are chemicals capable of disrupting normal hormone action and can be found in food, consumer products, and our environment [1]
Our findings are the first to report that developmental exposure (GD1-PND21) to a mixture of 23 oil and gas chemicals increased exploratory and risk-taking activity with a subsequent increase in energy expenditure in female C57Bl/6 mice
All unconventional oil and gas (UOG) exposure groups had a decrease in peri-uterine fad pad weight, which may have been a consequence of increased activity and energy expenditure
Summary
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are chemicals capable of disrupting normal hormone action and can be found in food, consumer products, and our environment [1]. EDCs have been linked to health problems including obesity, diabetes, reproduction, cancers, and neurodevelopmental problems [2]. EDCs that can alter the predisposition to obesity and metabolic disease are termed metabolic-disrupting chemicals (MDCs); these chemicals can promote metabolic changes that can result in type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, and/or obesity [3, 4]. We have previously shown that 23 commonly-utilized UOG chemicals tested could disrupt five nuclear hormone receptors [estrogen (ER), androgen (AR), progesterone (PR), glucocorticoid (GR), and thyroid (TR)] [5]
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