Avaliação dos efeitos da exposição ambiental paterna no fenótipo da prole de camundongos Swiss.

Author(s)

Lucas Barbosa Hoffmann

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB/SDI)
• Defense date: 2018-11-22

Examining board members

Rosana Camarini; Simone Cristina Motta; Isabel Marian Hartmann de Quadros; Alice Cristina Rodrigues

• Advisor: Rosana Camarini

Abstract

There is a growing interest in the effects of the parental environment on the offspring phenotype, the so-called epigenetic inheritance. It has been shown that this inheritance occurs especially for developmental plasticity effects, which stem from environmental changes during parental development. Studies carried out in mice have adopted several environmental strategies, such as early life stress and environmental enrichment, and the offspring have been assessed for behavioural, physiological and molecular parameters. In order to study the phenomenon, the present work investigated, in Swiss male mice, the effects of an early-life stress protocol, the Maternal Deprivation on PND 9, assessing behaviours such as exploratory (Open Field), anxiety-like (Elevated-Plus Maze), depressive-like (Forced Swim) and alcohol-related behaviours (Conditioned Place Preference and Behavioural Sensitisation) and, through a different approach, the environmental enrichment, from weaning (PND 21) to adulthood (PND 70), assessing diverse physiological parameters (body weight, fat pad weight, spleen and adrenal glands weights) and behaviours such as exploratory (Open Field), spatial memory (Barnes Maze), social dominance (Social Dominance Tube Test), attractiveness (Mate Choice Teste) as well as plasmatic corticosterone and hippocampal BDNF. The maternal deprivation did not yield any differences in the behavioural parameters assessed. The Environmental Enrichment paradigm was adopted for studying its effects on the offspring phenotype (males and females). Behavioural results were observed in the male offspring, which were the opposite of those found in the paternal generation. However, when the male offspring was exposed to a brief period of enrichment during adulthood, these differences were no longer found. Therefore, paternal environmental enrichment was able to induce effects on the offspring, turning male offspring less adapted to the non-enriched environment. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 17/11987-1 - Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance and environmental enrichment in male mice: investigation of hippocampus-dependent behaviors in the offspring and the involvement of epididymosomes
• Grantee: Lucas Barbosa Hoffmann
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master