miRNA levels in caput and cauda sperm in adult male guinea pigs following synthetic glucocorticoid exposure

It has been demonstrated that males exposed to adversity prior to conception sire offspring exhibiting abnormal behaviour and neuroendocrine function. Epigenetic factors such as microRNA (miRNA) within sperm may be responsible for driving these effects. Synthetic glucocorticoids (sGC) are a class of drug that are commonly prescribed and may have implications for intergenerational transmission. Therefore, we hypothesized that caput and cauda sperm miRNA profiles will be altered following sGC exposure in guinea pigs. We used miRNA microarray to evaluate the miRNA levels of caput and cauda sperm isolated from guinea pigs exposed to control and water treated with sGC. We identified a subset of miRNAs with low levels in cauda sperm of guinea pigs exposed to sGC. Caput and cauda sperm were isolated from adult male guinea pigs that either received control water (n=6) or water treated with the sGC dexamethasone (Dex) (n=6). Total RNA was extracted from caput sperm (n=6/group) and cauda sperm (n=6/group) microarray analysis was performed using miRNA 4.0 microarray (Affymetrix).