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- Legrand, M., et al.
(author)
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Cell proliferation and cell death are disturbed during prenatal and postnatal brain development after uranium exposure
- 2016
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In: Neurotoxicology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0161-813X .- 1872-9711. ; 52, s. 34-45
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The developing brain is more susceptible to neurotoxic compounds than adult brain. It is also well known that disturbances during brain development cause neurological disorders in adulthood. The brain is known to be a target organ of uranium (U) exposure and previous studies have noted that internal U contamination of adult rats induces behavioral disorders as well as affects neurochemistry and neurophysiological properties. In this study, we investigated whether depleted uranium (DU) exposure affects neurogenesis during prenatal and postnatal brain development. We examined the structural morphology of the brain, cell death and finally cell proliferation in animals exposed to DU during gestation and lactation compared to control animals. Our results showed that DU decreases cell death in the cortical neuroepithelium of gestational day (GD) 13 embryos exposed at 40 mg/L and 120 mg/L and of GD18 fetuses exposed at 120 mg/L without modification of the number of apoptotic cells. Cell proliferation analysis showed an increase of BrdU labeling in the dentate neuroepithelium of fetuses from GD18 at 120 mg/L. Postnatally, cell death is increased in the dentate gyrus of postnatal day (PND) 0 and PND5 exposed pups at 120 mg/L and is associated with an increase of apoptotic cell number only at PND5. Finally, a decrease in dividing cells is observed in the dentate gyrus of PND21 rats developmentally exposed to 120 mg/L DU, but not at PNDO and PND5. These results show that DU exposure during brain development causes opposite effects on cell proliferation and cell death processes between prenatal and postnatal development mainly at the highest dose. Although these modifications do not have a major impact in brain morphology, they could affect the next steps of neurogenesis and thus might disrupt the fine organization of the neuronal network.
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| 2. |
- Legrand, M., et al.
(author)
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Exposure to depleted uranium during development affects neuronal differentiation in the hippocampal dentate gyrus and induces depressive-like behavior in offspring
- 2016
-
In: Neurotoxicology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0161-813X .- 1872-9711. ; 57, s. 153-162
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The developing brain is known to be sensitive to uranium (U) and exposure to this element during postnatal brain development results in behavioral disorders in adulthood. Moreover, we have previously shown that U exposure during gestation and lactation affects neurogenesis, in particular neural cell proliferation and cell death. In this study, we investigated whether exposure to depleted U (DU) affects neuronal differentiation during prenatal and postnatal brain development. We assessed in situ expression of specific genes involved in neuronal differentiation and expression of neuronal protein markers. The effects of DU on neurobehavioral function were investigated in parallel. Neuronal differentiation involves many signaling pathways that regulate the balance between cell proliferation and the transition to neuronal differentiation. In the present study pregnant rats were exposed from gestational day (GD) 1 throughout lactation to postnatal day (PND) 21. Using in situ hybridization, our results show decreased expression of Wnt3a in the hippocampal neuroepithelium in GD 13 embryos from DU exposed dams and decreased expression of Notch1 and increased expression of Mash1 in the hippocampal and dentate neuroepithelia of GD 18 fetuses from DU exposed dams. Expression of the NeuroD and NeuroD2 genes was not modified in the hippocampal neuroepithelium of GD18 fetuses from DU exposed dams. There was no change in the expression of any of these genes in the dentate gyrus of PND 5 pups from DU exposed dams. No change in nestin or doublecortin immunestaining was observed in the prenatal or early postnatal stages. However, the number of doublecortin-positive cells increased in the granular cell layer of PND 21 pups from DU exposed dams. Finally, depressive-like behavior was induced in PND21 rats, without modification of locomotor and exploratory activities or of spatial memory. In conclusion, these results showed that exposure of pregnant and lactating rats to DU affects brain development by causing disturbed cell proliferation and neuronal differentiation at the prenatal stage. Moreover, this exposure increased the pool of immature neurons in the dentate gyrus and induced depressive-like behavior in neonatal rats. Therefore, these data strongly suggest that exposure to DU during gestation and lactation affects brain development in embryos, fetuses and neonates with behavioral consequences in the offspring.
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