DEVELOPMENTAL EXPOSURE TO POPs ALTERS THE SUSCEPTIBILITY OF THE CHOLINERGIC SYSTEM – IMPLICATIONS FOR NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS AND DISEASES

摘要

Foetuses and neonates are known to be high-risk groups for exposure to toxicants, and several epidemiological studies indicate that exposure to environmental pollutants during early human development can have deleterious effects on cognitive development in childhood. We have reported that low-dose exposure of neonatal mice, during the rapid brain growth (BGS), to environmental toxic agents (e.g. PCBs, BFRs, PFCs) and known neurotoxic agents (nicotine, organophosphorous compounds (OP)) can lead to disruption of the adult brain and to increased susceptibility to toxic agents at adult age. Several of these toxicants can also interact and enhance developmental neurotoxic effects. These neurobehavioural changes and changes in the cholinergic system are induced during a defined critical period of the BGS in neonatal mice when also proteins that are important for normal neuronal development can be affected. Present study indicates that agents known to affect the cholinergic system in neonates and adults can cause increased levels of the protein tau, a diagnostic marker for Alzheimer's diseases. Taken together this indicate that differences in adult susceptibility to environmental pollutants are not necessarily an inherited condition, instead be acquired by low dose exposure to toxic agents during early life and which can have implications for the development of neurological disorder and/or diseases.