Prenatal Exposure to an EDC Mixture, NeuroMix: Effects on Brain, Behavior, and Stress Responsiveness in Rats

Abstract

Humans and wildlife are exposed to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) throughout their lives. Environmental EDCs are implicated in a range of diseases/disorders with developmental origins, including neurodevelopment and behavior. EDCs are most often studied one by one; here, we assessed outcomes induced by a mixture designed to represent the real-world situation of multiple simultaneous exposures. The choice of EDCs, which we refer to as “NeuroMix,” was informed by evidence for neurobiological effects in single-compound studies and included bisphenols, phthalates, vinclozolin, and perfluorinated, polybrominated, and polychlorinated compounds. Pregnant Sprague Dawley rats were fed the NeuroMix or vehicle, and then offspring of both sexes were assessed for effects on postnatal development and behaviors and gene expression in the brain in adulthood. In order to determine whether early-life EDCs predisposed to subsequent vulnerability to postnatal life challenges, a subset of rats were also given a stress challenge in adolescence. Prenatal NeuroMix exposure decreased body weight and delayed puberty in males but not females. In adulthood, NeuroMix caused changes in anxiety-like, social, and mate preference behaviors only in females. Effects of stress were predominantly observed in males. Several interactions of NeuroMix and stress were found, especially for the mate preference behavior and gene expression in the brain. These findings provide novel insights into how two realistic environmental challenges lead to developmental and neurobehavioral deficits, both alone and in combination, in a sex-specific manner.