Maternal folic acid mild over consumption in mice leads to sex-specific transcriptional alterations in embryonic placenta

Food fortification and increased use of multivitamins have led to concerns over high folate intake periconceptionally. We reported that diets containing 5-fold higher FA than recommended for mice (5xFASD) during pregnancy, resulted in deficiency of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) and altered choline/methyl metabolism, with neurobehavioral abnormalities in newborns. Our goal was to determine whether these changes had their origins in the placenta during embryonic development. We used microarrays to compare the placental gene expression changes by 5xFASD and indentified different gene expression profiles due to diet or sex. At weaning, wild-type C57BL/6 female mice were placed for a month on control diet (CD) or 5xFASD, then mated, and were maintained on the same diets until embryonic day 17.5 (E17.5). Placentas of both sexes from both diets were used for RNA extraction and were conducted gene expression analysis by microarray using Affymetrix Clariom S array_Mouse Chip.