miRNA levels in F1-F3 male germ cells and female F2 PFC following prenatal exposure to sGC in guinea pigs

Stress and glucocorticoid exposure during pregnancy alters neurodevelopment and behavior in offspring, and these effects extend multiple generations through a paternal lineage. The epigenetic mechanisms that govern this transgenerational transmission are unclear. We hypothesized that maternal exposure to multiple courses of sGC in late pregnancy would result in altered miRNA levels in germs cells of male guinea pigs across three generations. Further, our behavioral data indicate that F2 females exhibit altered behaviors following sGC exposure. Thus, we evaluated the miRNA profile of F2 female prefrontal cortex to determine the mechanisms responsible for these behavioral changes and to compare these data to our germ cell miRNA analysis. We used miRNA microarray to evaluate the miRNA levels in F1-F3 germ cells and F2 female PFC in guinea pigs that were exposed to control and F0 prenatal sGC exposure. We identified no significant changes to miRNA levels in both F1-F3 germ cells and F2 PFC from guinea pigs in the sGC group. Germ cells were isolated from male guinea pigs that either were in the control or sGC group F1_Ctrl (n=7), F1_sGC (n=6), F2 (n=6/gp), and F3 (n=6/gp). PFC was isolated from F2 female guinea pigs (n=6/group). Total RNA was extracted from all samples and microarray analysis was performed using miRNA 4.0 microarray (Affymetrix).