Intergenerational Effects of Nicotine in an Animal Model of Paternal Nicotine Exposure
Authors
Vallaster, Markus ParzivalFaculty Advisor
Oliver J. RandoAcademic Program
Interdisciplinary Graduate ProgramUMass Chan Affiliations
Biochemistry and Molecular PharmacologyDocument Type
Doctoral DissertationPublication Date
2017-08-07Keywords
chromosomesepigenetics
genes
mouse
paternal effects
substance abuse
neuroscience
Behavioral Neurobiology
Biochemical Phenomena, Metabolism, and Nutrition
Cell Biology
Cellular and Molecular Physiology
Developmental Neuroscience
Genetics
Molecular Genetics
Other Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Environmental conditions imposed onto organisms during certain phases of their life cycles such as embryogenesis or puberty can not only impact the organisms’ own health, but also affect subsequent generations. The underlying mechanisms causing intergenerational phenotypes are not encoded in the genome, but the result of reversible epigenetic modifications. This work investigates in a mouse model the impact of paternal nicotine exposure on the next generation regarding addictive behavior modulation, metabolic changes, and molecular mechanisms. It provides evidence that male offspring from nicotine-exposed fathers (NIC offspring) is more resistant to lethal doses of nicotine. This phenotype is gender-specific and depends on short-term environmental challenges with low doses of nicotine prior to the LD50 application. The observed survival phenotype is not restricted to nicotine as drug of abuse, but also presents itself, when NIC offspring is challenged with a cocaine LD50 after acclimatization to low doses of either nicotine or cocaine. Functionally, NIC offspring metabolizes nicotine faster than control. Mechanistically, NIC offspring livers show global up-regulation of xenobiotic processing genes (XPG), an effect that is even more pronounced in primary hepatocyte cultures. Being known targets of Constitutive Androstane Receptor (CAR) and Pregnane X Receptor (PXR), these XPGs show higher baseline expression in naïve NIC offspring livers. Nicotine’s action on the brain’s reward circuitry does not appear to be of biological significance in our model system. Taken together, paternal nicotine exposure leads to a non-specific and conditional phenotype in male NIC offspring that may provide a general survival advantage against xenobiotic challenges.DOI
10.13028/M2W388Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/32294Rights
Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved.ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.13028/M2W388