The role of environmental exposures and the epigenome in health and disease

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152782/1/em22311_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152782/2/em22311.pd

Investigating phenotypic plasticity due to toxicants with exposure disparities in primary human breast cells in vitro

IntroductionBreast cancer is the second most diagnosed cancer, as well as the primary cause of cancer death in women worldwide. Of the different breast cancer subtypes, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is particularly aggressive and is associated with poor prognosis. Black women are two to three times more likely to be diagnosed with TNBCs than white women. Recent experimental evidence suggests that basal-like TNBCs may derive from luminal cells which acquire basal characteristics through phenotypic plasticity, a newly recognized hallmark of cancer. Whether chemical exposures can promote phenotypic plasticity in breast cells is poorly understood. MethodsTo investigate further, we developed a high-content immunocytochemistry assay using normal human breast cells to test whether chemical exposures can impact luminal/basal plasticity by unbiased quantification of keratin 14 (KRT14), a basal-myoepithelial marker; keratin 8 (KRT8), a luminal-epithelial marker; and Hoechst 33342, a DNA marker. Six cell lines established from healthy tissue from donors to the Susan G. Komen Normal Tissue Bank were exposed for 48 hours to three different concentrations (0.1μM, 1μM, and 10μM) of eight ubiquitous chemicals (arsenic, BPA, BPS, cadmium, copper, DDE, lead, and PFNA), with documented exposure disparities in US Black women, in triplicate. Automated fluorescence image quantification was performed using Cell Profiler software, and a random-forest classifier was trained to classify individual cells as KRT8 positive, KRT14 positive, or hybrid (both KRT8 and KRT14 positive) using Cell Profiler Analyst. Results and discussionResults demonstrated significant concentration-dependent increases in hybrid populations in response to BPA, BPS, DDE, and PFNA. The increase in hybrid populations expressing both KRT14 and KRT8 is indicative of a phenotypically plastic progenitor-like population in line with known theories of carcinogenesis. Furthermore, BPA, BPS, DDE, and copper produced significant increases in cell proliferation, which could be indicative of a more malignant phenotype. These results further elucidate the relationship between chemical exposure and breast phenotypic plasticity and highlight potential environmental factors that may impact TNBC risk

Developmental exposures to common environmental contaminants, DEHP and lead, alter adult brain and blood hydroxymethylation in mice

Introduction: The developing epigenome changes rapidly, potentially making it more sensitive to toxicant exposures. DNA modifications, including methylation and hydroxymethylation, are important parts of the epigenome that may be affected by environmental exposures. However, most studies do not differentiate between these two DNA modifications, possibly masking significant effects.Methods: To investigate the relationship between DNA hydroxymethylation and developmental exposure to common contaminants, a collaborative, NIEHS-sponsored consortium, TaRGET II, initiated longitudinal mouse studies of developmental exposure to human-relevant levels of the phthalate plasticizer di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), and the metal lead (Pb). Exposures to 25 mg DEHP/kg of food (approximately 5 mg DEHP/kg body weight) or 32 ppm Pb-acetate in drinking water were administered to nulliparous adult female mice. Exposure began 2 weeks before breeding and continued throughout pregnancy and lactation, until offspring were 21 days old. At 5 months, perinatally exposed offspring blood and cortex tissue were collected, for a total of 25 male mice and 17 female mice (n = 5–7 per tissue and exposure). DNA was extracted and hydroxymethylation was measured using hydroxymethylated DNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (hMeDIP-seq). Differential peak and pathway analysis was conducted comparing across exposure groups, tissue types, and animal sex, using an FDR cutoff of 0.15.Results: DEHP-exposed females had two genomic regions with lower hydroxymethylation in blood and no differences in cortex hydroxymethylation. For DEHP-exposed males, ten regions in blood (six higher and four lower) and 246 regions (242 higher and four lower) and four pathways in cortex were identified. Pb-exposed females had no statistically significant differences in blood or cortex hydroxymethylation compared to controls. Pb-exposed males, however, had 385 regions (all higher) and six pathways altered in cortex, but no differential hydroxymethylation was identified in blood.Discussion: Overall, perinatal exposure to human-relevant levels of two common toxicants showed differences in adult DNA hydroxymethylation that was specific to sex, exposure type, and tissue, but male cortex was most susceptible to hydroxymethylation differences by exposure. Future assessments should focus on understanding if these findings indicate potential biomarkers of exposure or are related to functional long-term health effects

Grey and white matter correlates of recent and remote autobiographical memory retrieval:Insights from the dementias

The capacity to remember self-referential past events relies on the integrity of a distributed neural network. Controversy exists, however, regarding the involvement of specific brain structures for the retrieval of recently experienced versus more distant events. Here, we explored how characteristic patterns of atrophy in neurodegenerative disorders differentially disrupt remote versus recent autobiographical memory. Eleven behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia, 10 semantic dementia, 15 Alzheimer's disease patients and 14 healthy older Controls completed the Autobiographical Interview. All patient groups displayed significant remote memory impairments relative to Controls. Similarly, recent period retrieval was significantly compromised in behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease, yet semantic dementia patients scored in line with Controls. Voxel-based morphometry and diffusion tensor imaging analyses, for all participants combined, were conducted to investigate grey and white matter correlates of remote and recent autobiographical memory retrieval. Neural correlates common to both recent and remote time periods were identified, including the hippocampus, medial prefrontal, and frontopolar cortices, and the forceps minor and left hippocampal portion of the cingulum bundle. Regions exclusively implicated in each time period were also identified. The integrity of the anterior temporal cortices was related to the retrieval of remote memories, whereas the posterior cingulate cortex emerged as a structure significantly associated with recent autobiographical memory retrieval. This study represents the first investigation of the grey and white matter correlates of remote and recent autobiographical memory retrieval in neurodegenerative disorders. Our findings demonstrate the importance of core brain structures, including the medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, irrespective of time period, and point towards the contribution of discrete regions in mediating successful retrieval of distant versus recently experienced events

Perinatal Lead Exposure Promotes Sex-Specific Epigenetic Programming of Disease-Relevant Pathways in Mouse Heart

Environmental contaminants such as the metal lead (Pb) are associated with cardiovascular disease, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. In particular, little is known about how exposure to Pb during early development impacts the cardiac epigenome at any point across the life course and potential differences between sexes. In a mouse model of human-relevant perinatal exposures, we utilized RNA-seq and Enhanced Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing (ERRBS) to investigate the effects of Pb exposure during gestation and lactation on gene expression and DNA methylation, respectively, in the hearts of male and female mice at weaning. For ERRBS, we identified differentially methylated CpGs (DMCs) or differentially methylated 1000 bp regions (DMRs) based on a minimum absolute change in methylation of 10% and an FDR < 0.05. For gene expression data, an FDR < 0.05 was considered significant. No individual genes met the FDR cutoff for gene expression; however, we found that Pb exposure leads to significant changes in the expression of gene pathways relevant to cardiovascular development and disease. We further found that Pb promotes sex-specific changes in DNA methylation at hundreds of gene loci (280 DMCs and 99 DMRs in males, 189 DMCs and 121 DMRs in females), and pathway analysis revealed that these CpGs and regions collectively function in embryonic development. In males, differential methylation also occurred at genes related to immune function and metabolism. We then investigated whether genes exhibiting differential methylation at weaning were also differentially methylated in hearts from a cohort of Pb-exposed mice at adulthood. We found that a single gene, Galnt2, showed differential methylation in both sexes and time points. In a human cohort investigating the influence of prenatal Pb exposure on the epigenome, we also observed an inverse association between first trimester Pb concentrations and adolescent blood leukocyte DNA methylation at a locus in GALNT2, suggesting that this gene may represent a biomarker of Pb exposure across species. Together, these data, across two time points in mice and in a human birth cohort study, collectively demonstrate that Pb exposure promotes sex-specific programming of the cardiac epigenome, and provide potential mechanistic insight into how Pb causes cardiovascular disease

Sex-Specific Alterations in Cardiac DNA Methylation in Adult Mice by Perinatal Lead Exposure

Environmental factors play an important role in the etiology of cardiovascular diseases. Cardiovascular diseases exhibit marked sexual dimorphism; however, the sex-specific effects of environmental exposures on cardiac health are incompletely understood. Perinatal and adult exposures to the metal lead (Pb) are linked to several adverse cardiovascular outcomes, but the sex-specific effects of this toxicant on the heart have received little attention. Perinatal environmental exposures can lead to disease through disruption of the normal epigenetic programming that occurs during early development. Using a mouse model of human-relevant perinatal environmental exposure, we investigated the effects of exposure to Pb during gestation and lactation on DNA methylation in the hearts of adult offspring mice (n = 6 per sex). Two weeks prior to mating, dams were assigned to control or Pb acetate (32 ppm) water, and exposure continued until offspring were weaned at three weeks of age. Enhanced reduced-representation bisulfite sequencing was used to measure DNA methylation in the hearts of offspring at five months of age. Although Pb exposure stopped at three weeks of age, we discovered hundreds of differentially methylated cytosines (DMCs) and regions (DMRs) in males and females at five months of age. DMCs/DMRs and their associated genes were sex-specific, with a small, but statistically significant subset overlapping between sexes. Pathway analysis revealed altered methylation of genes important for cardiac and other tissue development in males, and histone demethylation in females. Together, these data demonstrate that perinatal exposure to Pb induces sex-specific changes in cardiac DNA methylation that are present long after cessation of exposure, and highlight the importance of considering sex in environmental epigenetics and mechanistic toxicology studies

Perinatal Lead Exposure Promotes Sex-Specific Epigenetic Programming of Disease-Relevant Pathways in Mouse Heart

Environmental contaminants such as the metal lead (Pb) are associated with cardiovascular disease, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. In particular, little is known about how exposure to Pb during early development impacts the cardiac epigenome at any point across the life course and potential differences between sexes. In a mouse model of human-relevant perinatal exposures, we utilized RNA-seq and Enhanced Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing (ERRBS) to investigate the effects of Pb exposure during gestation and lactation on gene expression and DNA methylation, respectively, in the hearts of male and female mice at weaning. For ERRBS, we identified differentially methylated CpGs (DMCs) or differentially methylated 1000 bp regions (DMRs) based on a minimum absolute change in methylation of 10% and an FDR < 0.05. For gene expression data, an FDR < 0.05 was considered significant. No individual genes met the FDR cutoff for gene expression; however, we found that Pb exposure leads to significant changes in the expression of gene pathways relevant to cardiovascular development and disease. We further found that Pb promotes sex-specific changes in DNA methylation at hundreds of gene loci (280 DMCs and 99 DMRs in males, 189 DMCs and 121 DMRs in females), and pathway analysis revealed that these CpGs and regions collectively function in embryonic development. In males, differential methylation also occurred at genes related to immune function and metabolism. We then investigated whether genes exhibiting differential methylation at weaning were also differentially methylated in hearts from a cohort of Pb-exposed mice at adulthood. We found that a single gene, Galnt2, showed differential methylation in both sexes and time points. In a human cohort investigating the influence of prenatal Pb exposure on the epigenome, we also observed an inverse association between first trimester Pb concentrations and adolescent blood leukocyte DNA methylation at a locus in GALNT2, suggesting that this gene may represent a biomarker of Pb exposure across species. Together, these data, across two time points in mice and in a human birth cohort study, collectively demonstrate that Pb exposure promotes sex-specific programming of the cardiac epigenome, and provide potential mechanistic insight into how Pb causes cardiovascular disease

Tissue and sex-specific programming of DNA methylation by perinatal lead exposure: implications for environmental epigenetics studies

Early developmental environment can influence long-term health through reprogramming of the epigenome. Human environmental epigenetics studies rely on surrogate tissues, such as blood, to assess the effects of environment on disease-relevant but inaccessible target tissues. However, the extent to which environment-induced epigenetic changes are conserved between these tissues is unclear. A better understanding of this conservation is imperative for effective design and interpretation of human environmental epigenetics studies. The Toxicant Exposures and Responses by Genomic and Epigenomic Regulators of Transcription (TaRGET II) consortium was established by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to address the utility of surrogate tissues as proxies for toxicant-induced epigenetic changes in target tissues. We and others have recently reported that perinatal exposure to lead (Pb) is associated with adverse metabolic outcomes. Here, we investigated the sex-specific effects of perinatal exposure to a human environmentally relevant level of Pb on DNA methylation in paired liver and blood samples from adult mice using enhanced reduced-representation bisulphite sequencing. Although Pb exposure ceased at 3 weeks of age, we observed thousands of sex-specific differentially methylated cytosines in the blood and liver of Pb-exposed animals at 5 months of age, including 44 genomically imprinted loci. We observed significant tissue overlap in the genes mapping to differentially methylated cytosines. A small but significant subset of Pb-altered genes exhibit basal sex differences in gene expression in the mouse liver. Collectively, these data identify potential molecular targets for Pb-induced metabolic diseases, and inform the design of more robust human environmental epigenomics studies

Overexpression of HOX genes is prevalent in Ewing sarcoma and is associated with altered epigenetic regulation of developmental transcription programs

<div><p>The polycomb proteins BMI-1 and EZH2 are highly overexpressed by Ewing sarcoma (ES), a tumor of stem cell origin that is driven by EWS-ETS fusion oncogenes, most commonly EWS-FLI1. In the current study we analyzed expression of transcription programs that are controlled by polycomb proteins during embryonic development to determine if they are abnormal in ES. Our results show that polycomb target gene expression in ES deviates from normal tissues and stem cells and that, as expected, most targets are relatively repressed. However, we also discovered a paradoxical up regulation of numerous polycomb targets and these were highly enriched for homeobox (HOX) genes. Comparison of HOX profiles between malignant and non-malignant tissues revealed a distinctive HOX profile in ES, which was characterized by overexpression of posterior HOXD genes. In addition, ectopic expression of EWS-FLI1 during stem cell differentiation led to aberrant up regulation of posterior HOXD genes. Mechanistically, this up regulation was associated with altered epigenetic regulation. Specifically, ES and EWS-FLI1+ stem cells displayed a relative loss of polycomb-dependent H3K27me3 and gain of trithorax-dependent H3K4me3 at the promoters of posterior HOXD genes and also at the HOXD11.12 polycomb response element. In addition, a striking correlation was evident between <i>HOXD13</i> and other genes whose regulation is coordinately regulated during embryonic development by distal enhancer elements. Together, these studies demonstrate that epigenetic regulation of polycomb target genes, in particular HOXD genes, is altered in ES and that these changes are mediated downstream of EWS-FLI1.</p></div