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Maternal co-exposure to Cd and PS-NPLs induces offspring ovarian inflammatory aging via promoting M1 macrophage polarization
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Researchers co-exposed pregnant mice to cadmium and polystyrene nanoplastics during pregnancy and lactation, finding that this combination disrupted sex hormones in female offspring and promoted M1 macrophage polarization in ovarian tissue — a pro-inflammatory state associated with accelerated ovarian aging — via gut microbiota disruption and TLR4 signaling activation.
With the growing crisis of plastic pollution, the severe environmental problem threatens human and ecosystem health. And nanoplastics can carry other environmental contaminants, thereby causing severe toxic effects. Cadmium (Cd), as a metal, has been widely concerned because of its long biological half-life, high toxicity and low excretion rate. Additionally, Cd as an endocrine disrupting chemical also has reproductive toxicity and genotoxicity. Studies have found that co-exposed to Cd and PS-NPLs complexes may lead to more severe adverse effects in aquatic and mammals. And the utilization of other non-essential heavy metals such as cadmium are increased due to iron deficiency anemia in women during pregnancy. Therefore, in our study, 8 week-old female C57BL/6 J mice were co-exposed to Cd and NPLs during pregnancy and lactation, and the offspring are raised to four weeks to explore and predict the potential effect on the development of offspring reproductive system by transcriptomics. The results showed that sex hormone levels were interfered in offspring female mice, and gut microbiota disorder and increased LPS levels originated from the mother, which activating TLR4-related signaling pathways, and promoting ovarian M1 macrophage polarization, thereby increasing the risk of ovarian inflammatory aging in female offspring.
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