De novo transgenerational inheritance of male rat hyperactivity by rotenone

Abstract

There is growing evidence of transgenerational effects of a single exposure to chemicals, whose mechanism is implicated to be epigenetic. However, it is largely unknown whether psychiatric diseases such as ADHD or autism caused by environmental chemicals might be transmitted. Rotenone (3 mg/kg), a dopaminergic toxin was orally exposed to Wistar male pups at 5-day old. Their spontaneous motor activity was higher 1.3 fold than that of control rats at 11 weeks of age. At 26 weeks of age, the hyperactive rat (F0) was mated with Wistar female rats. We established the two strains of such mating and found the spontaneous motor activity of the offspring (F1) were much higher 1.5~2.0 fold than those of both control offspring and the parents. Thus, in this study I show the rat hyperactivity caused by neonatal rotenone lesions was transmitted to next generation, indicating the de novo inheritance.