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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Panagiotis Georgiadis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Institute of Chemical Biology, National Hellenic Research Foundation, 11634 Athens, Greece
Interests: biomarkers; genomics; epigenomics; metagenomics; environmental health; cancer epidemiology; genotoxicity

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Decades of investigations on the causal role of the environment in human disease and morbidity led to the conception of "exposome". It refers to the totality of the exposures suffered by an individual, that comes from all sources, (i.e. environment, food, psychosocial components, endogenous exposure), in a life-course perspective from the womb onwards. One of the key tools for the development and application of the exposome concept is the use of global sets of biomarkers (-omics) as generic measures of the internal exposome and disease risk. Among them, alterations in epigenetic biomarkers such as DNA methylation have been associated with various exposures, and in many cases proved to be critical determinants of disease risk and aetiology. In addition, the long-lasting nature of their fingerprint (methylome) is a prerequisite for the temporal component of the exposome. Therefore, deviations on CpG methylation or hydroxymethylation could function as the biological mediators between the environmental exposures and their effect on health and thus bridge the gap between the genetic and environmental determinants of human diseases. This Special Issue in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences entitled "The methylome as an emerging profiler of exposome" invites studies, reviews, and commentaries related to this emerging area of environmental epigenetics.

Dr. Panagiotis Georgiadis
Guest Editor

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Keywords

Exposome
Methylation
Hydroxymethylation
Exposure
environment
epigenetics

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

18 pages, 31491 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Transgenerational Effects of Di(2-Ethylhexyl) Phthalate on Anogenital Distance, Sperm Functions and DNA Methylation in Rat Offspring

by Ping-Chi Hsu, Jia-Ying Jhong, Li-Ping Huang, Kuo-Hsin Lee, Hsin-Pao Chen and Yue-Leon Guo

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(8), 4131; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms22084131 - 16 Apr 2021

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2182

Abstract

Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is widely used as a plasticizer in the manufacture of polyvinylchloride plastics and has been associated with concerns regarding male reproductive toxicity. In this study, we hypothesized that maternal exposure to DEHP induces transgenerational inheritance of adult-onset adverse reproductive outcomes through the male germline in the F1, F2, and F3 generations of male offspring. Pregnant rats were treated with 5 or 500 mg of DEHP/kg/day through gavage from gestation day 0 to birth. The offspring body weight, anogenital distance (AGD), anogenital index (AGI), sperm count, motility, and DNA fragmentation index (DFI) were measured for all generations. Methyl-CpG binding domain sequencing was performed to analyze sperm DNA methylation status in the F3. DEHP exposure at 500 mg/kg affected AGD, AGI, sperm count, mean DFI, and %DFI in the F1; AGD, sperm count, and mean DFI in the F2; and AGD, AGI, mean DFI, and %DFI in the F3. DEHP exposure at 5 mg/kg affected AGD, AGI, sperm count, and %DFI in the F1; sperm count in the F2; and AGD and AGI in F3. Compared with the control group, 15 and 45 differentially hypermethylated genes were identified in the groups administered 5 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg DEHP, respectively. Moreover, 130 and 6 differentially hypomethylated genes were observed in the groups administered 5 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg DEHP. Overall, these results demonstrated that prenatal exposure to DEHP caused transgenerational epigenetic effects, which may explain the observed phenotypic changes in the male reproductive system. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Methylome as an Emerging Profiler of Exposome)

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