| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,030,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥930,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥4,030,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥930,000)
|
|---|
| Research Abstract |
Epidemiological and experimental studies suggest that exposure to low levels of environmental chemicals induce disorders in higher brain functions including cognition and emotion It is established that hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the neuroendocrinological stress response system, plays a pivotal role in the cognition and emotion. However, the effect of environmental chemical exposure on the developing the neuroendocrine system is largely unknown. Thus, we administered pregnant mice 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) to develop a chemically exposed rodent model. For a comparative purpose, we generated early-life stress mouse models, such as maternal separation and early deprivation, as positive control that manifests abnormal development of the HPA system. We adopted to use novel behavioral analysis as well as traditional biochemical- and molecular biology techniques. We discovered the early deprivation resulted in a behavioral phenotype similar to perinatal low-dose dioxin exposure whereas the maternal separation had an opposite behavioral consequence. The result of gene expression analysis suggested an alteration of the functional connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. To elucidate the underlying mechanism between the dioxin-induced developmental toxicity and the early life environmental conditions warrants further studies.
|
