Intra- and intergenerational changes in the cortical DNA methylome in response to therapeutic intermittent hypoxia in mice

The hormesis principle of neuroplasticity and neuroprotection

Animals live in habitats fraught with a range of environmental challenges to their bodies and brains. Accordingly, cells and organ systems have evolved stress-responsive signaling pathways that enable them to not only withstand environmental challenges but also to prepare for future challenges and function more efficiently. These phylogenetically conserved processes are the foundation of the hormesis principle, in which single or repeated exposures to low levels of environmental challenges improve cellular and organismal fitness and raise the probability of survival. Hormetic principles have been most intensively studied in physical exercise but apply to numerous other challenges known to improve human health (e.g., intermittent fasting, cognitive stimulation, and dietary phytochemicals). Here we review the physiological mechanisms underlying hormesis-based neuroplasticity and neuroprotection. Approaching natural resilience from the lens of hormesis may reveal novel methods for optimizing brain function and lowering the burden of neurological disorders.

Epigenetic conditioning induces intergenerational resilience to dementia in a mouse model of vascular cognitive impairment

INTRODUCTION

Epigenetic stimuli induce beneficial or detrimental changes in gene expression, and consequently, phenotype. Some of these phenotypes can manifest across the lifespan-and even in subsequent generations. Here, we used a mouse model of vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID) to determine whether epigenetically induced resilience to specific dementia-related phenotypes is heritable by first-generation progeny.

METHODS

Our systemic epigenetic therapy consisted of 2 months of repetitive hypoxic "conditioning" (RHC) prior to chronic cerebral hypoperfusion in adult C57BL/6J mice. Resultant changes in object recognition memory and hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) were assessed 3 and 4 months later, respectively.

RESULTS

Hypoperfusion-induced memory/plasticity deficits were abrogated by RHC. Moreover, similarly robust dementia resilience was documented in untreated cerebral hypoperfused animals derived from RHC-treated parents.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results in experimental VCID underscore the efficacy of epigenetics-based treatments to prevent memory loss, and demonstrate for the first time the heritability of an induced resilience to dementia.

Hypobaric hypoxia exposure alters transcriptome in mouse testis and impairs spermatogenesis in offspring

Male fertility relies on continual and robust spermatogenesis. Environmental hypoxia adversely affects reproductive health in humans and animal studies provide compelling evidences that hypoxia impairs spermatogenesis in directly exposed individuals. However, a detail examination of hypoxia induced changes in testicular gene expression is still lacking and spermatogenesis in offspring of hypoxia exposed animals of awaits investigation. In this study, a hypobaric hypoxic chamber was used to simulate hypoxic conditions in mice and effects of hypoxia on spermatogenesis, fertility and testicular gene expression were evaluated. The results showed that hypoxia exposure reduced the number of undifferentiated spermatogonia but did not change the regenerative capacity of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) after transplantation. Hypoxia significantly increased the percent of abnormal sperm and these defects were recovered 2 months after returning to the normoxia. Transcriptome analysis of testicular tissues from control and hypoxia treated animals revealed that 766 genes were up-regulated and 965 genes were down-regulated. Surprisingly, expressions of genes that regulate epigenetic modifications were altered, indicating hypoxia-induced damage to spermatogenesis may be intergenerational. Indeed, animals that were sired by hypoxia exposed males exhibited impaired spermatogenesis. Together, these findings suggest that hypoxia exposure alters testicular gene expression and causes long-lasting damage to spermatogenesis.

Harnessing the power of multi-omics data for predicting climate change response

Predicting how species will respond to future climate change is of central importance in the midst of the global biodiversity crisis, and recent work has demonstrated the utility of population genomics for improving these predictions. Here, we suggest a broadening of the approach to include other types of genomic variants that play an important role in adaptation, like structural (e.g. copy number variants) and epigenetic variants (e.g. DNA methylation). These data could provide additional power for forecasting response, especially in weakly structured or panmictic species. Incorporating structural and epigenetic variation into estimates of climate change vulnerability, or maladaptation, may not only improve prediction power but also provide insight into the molecular mechanisms underpinning species' response to climate change.

Intermittent Hypoxia Promotes Functional Neuroprotection from Retinal Ischemia in Untreated First-Generation Offspring: Proteomic Mechanistic Insights

Purpose

Stress can lead to short- or long-term changes in phenotype. Accumulating evidence also supports the transmission of maladaptive phenotypes, induced by adverse stressors, through the germline to manifest in subsequent generations, providing a novel mechanistic basis for the heritability of disease. In the present study in mice, we tested the hypothesis that repeated presentations of a nonharmful conditioning stress, demonstrated previously to protect against retinal ischemia, will also provide ischemic protection in the retinae of their untreated, first-generation (F1) adult offspring.

Methods

Swiss-Webster ND4 outbred mice were mated following a 16-week period of brief, every-other-day conditioning exposures to mild systemic hypoxia (repetitive hypoxic conditioning, RHC). Retinae of their 5-month-old F1 progeny were subjected to unilateral ischemia. Scotopic electroretinography quantified postischemic outcomes. The injury-resilient retinal proteome was revealed by quantitative mass spectrometry, and bioinformatic analyses identified the biochemical pathways and networks in which these differentially expressed proteins operate.

Results

Significant resilience to injury in both sexes was documented in F1 mice derived from RHC-treated parents, relative to matched F1 adult progeny derived from normoxic control parents. Ischemia-induced increases and decreases in the expression of many visual transduction proteins that are integral to photoreceptor function were abrogated by parental RHC, providing a molecular basis for the observed functional protection.

Conclusions

Our proteomic analyses provided mechanistic insights into the molecular manifestation of the inherited, injury-resilient phenotype. To our knowledge, this is the first study in a mammalian model documenting the reprogramming of heritability to promote disease resilience in the next generation.