Endocrine disruptors induce transgenerational alterations of the male reproductive parameters and mirna expression profiles in mouse primordial germ cells

Primordial germ cells (PGCs) are the embryonic precursors of the germ cell linage, which are restricted to form only sperm and oocytes following their specification from pluripotent cells. PGC precursors are specified in the epiblast around 6.25 days post coitum (dpc), and around 7.25 dpc become identifiable in a 40 cell-cluster. In the present study, we used a mouse model to evaluate the trans-generational (F1-F3) effects of vinclozolin (VCZ) administrated in two doses on male reproductive parameters. We observed decreased fertility rate, higher apoptotic rate and histopathologic alterations in adult testis, PGC number reduction, increments of PGCs apoptosis and changes in PGCs gene expression among all three generations. In the attempt to clarify the trans-generational transmition of the altered phenotypes, we performed the microRNA expression and DNA methylation analysis. We observed the significant alteration in the expression of multiple microRNA and microRNA-regulated genes which are important for PGCs specification, including LIN28, let-7 and BLIMP1. Trans-generational deregulation in the expression of factors involved in the Lin28-let-7-Blimp1 pathway can lead to specific VCZ-induced phenotype observed in our study