Higher maternal folic acid during gestation dysregulates expression of several genes in mice offspring cerebellum

Maternal vitamins and micronutrients during gestational periods have profound impact on the developmemt of newborns as well as influence susceptibility to chronic conditions. Folic acid is indicated to women during pregnancies to prevent occurrence of neural tube defects in infants. Recently, evidence is emerging of the epigenetic effects of folic acid. Since epigenetic changes are crucial in developing fetus, we investigated the effect of maternal higher folic acid supplementation on the gene expression in offspring brains to identify if brain development may be affected. Our results revealed that maternal exposure of higher dose FA diet during gestation dysregulates expression of several genes in the cerebellum of both male and female pups. Dysregulated genes included several transcriptional factors, imprinted genes, neurodevelopmental genes and genes associated with autism spectrum disorder. Adult, 8- to 10-week-old C57BL/6J mice were used in all the experiments and handled according to the protocol reviewed and approved by the Institute for Basic Research Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. One week prior to mating and throughout the pregnancy two groups of female mice were fed with custom AIN-93G amino acid–based diet (Research Diet, Inc. New-Brunswick, NJ), which contained folic acid (FA) at 2mg/kg and 20 mg/kg diet. At postnatal day one (P1), from FA at 2 mg/kg group: male pups’ n=3 and female pups’ n=3 were sacrificed by cervical dislocation and cerebellum tissues were collected. From FA at 20 mg/kg group: male pups’ n=6 and female pups n=6 were similarly processed. All tissues were snapped frozen and stored at -80°C until downstream analysis was performed.