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Can maternal exposure to air pollution affect post-natal liver development?

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Emerging evidence suggests that inhalation of particulate matter (PM) can have direct adverse effects on liver function. Early life is a time of particular vulnerability to the effects of air pollution. On that basis, we tested whether in utero exposure to residential PM has an impact on the developing liver. Pregnant mice (C57BL/6J) were intranasally administered 100 µg of PM sampled from residential roof spaces (~5 mg/kg) on gestational days 13.5, 15.5, and 17.5. The pups were euthanized at two weeks of age, and liver tissue was collected to analyse hepatic metabolism (glycogen storage and lipid level), cellular responses (oxidative stress, inflammation, and fibrosis), and genotoxicity using a range of biochemical assays, histological staining, ELISA, and qPCR. We did not observe pronounced effects of environmentally sampled PM on the developing liver when examining hepatic metabolism and cellular response. However, we did find evidence of liver genomic DNA damage in response to in utero exposure to PM. This effect varied depending on the PM sample. These data suggest that in utero exposure to real-world PM during mid-late pregnancy has limited impacts on post-natal liver development.

History

Publication title

Toxics

Volume

11

Pagination

1-9

ISSN

2305-6304

Department/School

Menzies Institute for Medical Research

Publisher

MDPI AG

Place of publication

Switzerland

Rights statement

Copyright (2023) the authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CCBY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Prevention of human diseases and conditions

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