Toxicogenomic analysis of the effects of BDE-47/209, TBBPA/S, TCBPA on early neural development, with human embryonic stem cells

Flame retardants are detected globally in the environment, and pose great risks to human health. The potential effects of these chemicals on the development of nervous system have raise public concerns. In this study, to explore the toxicity profiles of these chemicals in the early developmental stage of human nervous system, we induced neural ectoderm from human embryonic stem cells in the presence of individual or mixture of BDE-47, BDE-209, TBBPA, TBBPS, TCBPA. By analyzing the whole transcriptional changes in the samples treated with 1 µ? of each chemical, we identified a set of neural development relative biological processes that response to these chemicals. Genes involved in the GO terms relative to neural development were further confirmed by qRT-PCR assay, with samples treated with various concentrations (10 nM, 100 nM, 1 µ?, 5 µ?) of these chemicals. We found out that axon guidance and synaptogenesis may be the major target of these chemicals. In addition, these flame retardants may dysregulate the WNT and AHR signaling pathways. BDE-209 showed similar toxicity with BDE-47, whereas TBBPS and TCBPA may not be safe alternatives to TBBPA. Overall design: Totally have 14 samples with 7 groups, including control, BDE-47 treated group, BDE-209 treated group, TBBPA treated group, TBBPS treated group, TCBPA treated group and the group treated with the mixture of these five chemicals; each group contrain two replicates.