Interaction between probiotic additive and perfluorobutanesulfonate pollutant on offspring growth and health after parental exposure using zebrafish

Abstract Data from a series of experiments demonstrates that maternal supply of polyunsaturated fatty acids, particularly eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), during late gestation affects offspring growth. The increase in growth is independent on the fatty acid supplemented during the growing or finishing phase of the offspring; but it is sex dependent. Dam PUFA supplementation increases wether growth. Supplementation with EPA and DHA to pregnant ewes and to their offspring after weaning showed a treatment interaction in mRNA concentration of hypothalamic neuropeptides associated with dry matter intake (DMI) regulation. A dose increased in EPA and DHA in pregnant ewe diets shows a linear increase in growth, but a quadratic change in DMI or feed efficiency; growth was associated with a linear increase in plasma glucose concentration and a linear decrease in plasma ghrelin concentration. In lambs born from ewes supplemented with different sources of FA during a glucose tolerance test; males’ plasma insulin concentration increased as FA unsaturation degree increased in the dam diet, the opposite happened with females’ plasma insulin concentration. Recent data from our lab showed that the supplementation with EPA and DHA during the last third of gestation to pregnant ewes increased liver and small intestine global DNA methylation and small intestine transporters for amino acids in the fetus. Despite EPA and DHA during late gestation increase growth in the offspring; when EPA and DHA were supplemented in early gestation, offspring growth was lesser that lambs born from ewes supplemented a saturated and monounsaturated lipid. The reason for the difference in results it is not clear. However, more studies focusing in some aspect of the biology will help to understand what specific fatty acid needs to be supplemented at different stages of gestation to improve offspring growth.

Download Full-text

Congenital Malformations and Perinatal Deaths among the Children of Atomic Bomb Survivors: A Reappraisal

American Journal of Epidemiology ◽

10.1093/aje/kwab099 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Michiko Yamada ◽

Kyoji Furukawa ◽

Yoshimi Tatsukawa ◽

Keiko Marumo ◽

Sachiyo Funamoto ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Pregnancy Outcomes ◽

Congenital Malformations ◽

Radiation Effects ◽

Atomic Bomb ◽

Perinatal Deaths ◽

Neonatal Deaths ◽

Atomic Bomb Survivors ◽

Parental Exposure ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Major Congenital Malformations

Abstract From 1948 to 1954, the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission conducted a study of pregnancy outcomes of children of atomic bomb survivors who had received radiation doses from zero to near-lethal levels. Past reports (1956, 1981, and 1990) on the cohort did not identify significant associations of radiation exposure with untoward pregnancy outcomes such as major congenital malformations, stillbirths, or neonatal deaths, individually or in aggregate. We have re-examined the risk of major congenital malformations and perinatal deaths in the children of the atomic bomb survivors (N=71,603) using fully reconstructed data to minimize the potential for bias, with refined estimates of the gonadal dose from the Dosimetry System 2002 and refined analytical methods for characterizing dose-response relationships. The analyses show that parental exposure is associated with increased risk for major congenital malformations and perinatal deaths, but the estimates are imprecise for direct radiation effects and most are not statistically significant. Nonetheless, the uniformly positive estimates for untoward pregnancy outcomes among children of both maternal and paternal survivors are useful for risk assessment purposes, although extending them to circumstances other than atomic bomb survivors comes with uncertainty as to the generalizability of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki populations.

Download Full-text