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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Behav. Neurosci.
Sec. Learning and Memory
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2025.1571122
This article is part of the Research Topic Behavioral impact of environmental contaminants: neurotoxicity and endocrine disruption View all articles
Exposure to benzopyrene during critical pregnancy period in rats on the neurodevelopment of their offspring: insights from the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway
Provisionally accepted
Nan Zhang 1
Nan Bo 1
yuanhao Wang 1
wenlin Bai 1
wen Sun 1 zhenlin zhao 2 yuanbao Zhang 3 yingying Zhang 1
Lijian Lei 1
Jianjun Zhou 4 wenping Zhang 1*- 1 Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- 2 Shenzhen Ripson Stem Cell Regenerative Medicine Institute, Shenzhen, China
- 3 Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, Beijing, China
- 4 Research Center for Translation Medicine, Shanghai East Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
The mid-gestation is a critical period for the development of the nervous system. Exposure to exogenous harmful chemicals during this period may lead to long-term neurological developmental abnormalities in offspring. Benzopyrene (B[a]P) is a commonly occurring neurotoxic environmental pollutant that can pass through the placental barrier and blood-brain barrier (BBB), thereby affecting placental nerve development. To investigate the neurotoxic mechanism of B[a]P on offspring exposed in mid-gestation, pregnant rats were exposure to B[a]P (25 mg/kg) from gestation day 8 to 14. Meanwhile, as an agonist of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, Lithium chloride (LiCl) was treated to observe the intervention effects. The results showed that in rats exposed to B[a]P in mid-gestation, the developmental nodes of the offspring were delayed and the neurosensory sensitivity of the offspring was reduced. These offspring also have cognitive impairments in adulthood. Subsequent morphological and protein experiments showed that the exposed offspring had reduced neuronal complexity in the CA1 region of the hippocampus, decreased β-catenin expression, and increased GSK-3β expression in the hippocampal tissue. But all these indexes can be reversed by LiCl. In summary, these results suggest that B[a]P exposed in mid-gestation pregnant may lead to neurological damage in offspring by down-regulating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.
Keywords: B[a]P, Mid-gestation, Developmental landmarks, Learning and memory function, offspring
Received: 05 Feb 2025; Accepted: 02 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Bo, Wang, Bai, Sun, zhao, Zhang, Zhang, Lei, Zhou and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
wenping Zhang, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
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