Omics · study · 2026
Chemicals linked to lower IQ in children induce neurodevelopmentally relevant DNA methylation changes in rat pups and effects on learning and memory in adulthood
Listed in NCBI GEO
Developmental exposure to environmental chemicals is increasingly associated with impaired neurodevelopment, yet the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear.
Description
Epigenetic modifications, particularly DNA methylation, may, at least partly, mediate these effects. In this study, we aimed to determine whether developmental exposure to chemicals associated with lower IQ in children induces early life DNA methylation changes that associate with learning and memory in adulthood.
To this end, we examined genome-wide DNA methylation in the hippocampus of female and male Long-Evans rats at postnatal day (PND) 6 and effects on learning and memory in adulthood. The rats were exposed to seven chemicals from 2 weeks before mating until weaning: benzyl butyl phthalate (BBzP), bisphenol A (BPA), bisphenol F (BPF), diisononyl cyclohexane-1,2-dicarboxylate (DINCH), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), permethrin (PMT), and triphenyl phosphate (TPHP), all of them previously associated with lower IQ in children.
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Reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) in the offspring revealed sex- and chemical- specific differentially methylated positions (DMPs). Functional annotation showed that DMP-associated genes were enriched for neurodevelopmentally relevant biological processes. Significant effects on learning and memory were observed following BBzP and BPF exposures in males, and DINCH and TPHP in females.
Integration of DNA methylation data with learning and memory outcomes identified 141 genes that were differentially methylated at PND 6 and associated with learning and memory in adulthood. Together, these findings demonstrate that developmental chemical exposures induce targeted, sex-specific DNA methylation alterations in the hippocampus early in life that may contribute to later-life learning and memory outcomes.
Links
Get the data
- GEO FTP directory ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/series/GSE347nnn/GSE347934 ↗
download · from NCBI GEO
Where it is published
- GEO accession page ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE347934 ↗
landing page · from NCBI GEO
Documentation and papers
- PRJNA1531637 ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/PRJNA1531637 ↗
project · from NCBI GEO
Topics
- Stated by source
- Methylation profiling by high throughput sequencing · Rattus norvegicus
- From keywords
- Life Sciences
- Inferred from text
- Sequencing 75%
Provenance · 1 source records, 8 field assertions
| Source | Key | Last seen | Raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| NCBI GEO | GSE347934 | 7 d ago | JSON v1 |
| Field | Assertion | Extractor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| access_level | source · NCBI GEO | connector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:life-sciences | mapping · NCBI GEO | connector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[method].geo_series_type:methylation-profiling-by-high-throughput-sequencing | source · NCBI GEO | connector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0 | /gdstype |
| concepts[modality].local:modality:sequencing | enrichment · NCBI GEO | keyword-concept-rules@1.0.0 | title+description (75%) |
| concepts[organism].NCBITaxon:10116 | source · NCBI GEO | connector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0 | /taxon |
| description | source · NCBI GEO | connector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0 | /summary |
| publication_date | source · NCBI GEO | connector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0 | |
| title | source · NCBI GEO | connector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0 | /title |