Altered Genome-Wide Hippocampal Gene Expression Profiles Following Early Life Lead Exposure and their Potential for Reversal by Environmental Enrichment

Developmental lead (Pb) exposure results in persistent cognitive/behavioral impairments as well as an elevated risk for developing a variety of diseases in later life. The quality of the environment can modify negative influences from Pb exposure. How the interaction between Pb and quality of the environment influences gene expression pattern in the brain affecting the development treajectory is unexplored. We used RNA-seq to examine how the interaction between developmental Pb exposure and living in an enriched versus a non-enriched environment affects genome-wide gene expression pattern in Hippocampus (HIPP) CA1. Overall design: Female Long Evans rats were exposed to 0 ppm or 150 ppm Pb through early postnatal exposure (birth through weaning). Post-weaning, rats were randomly housed 3 to a standard cage with no added stimuli (non-enriched) or 6 to a cage containing enrichment stimuli (enriched group) resulting into four experimental groups: Control (0ppm)_non-enriched, Control (0ppm)_enriched, EPN Pb (150ppm)_non-enriched and EPN Pb (150ppm)_enriched. At PND55, rats were euthanized and HIPP CA1 was dissected for RNA-seq analysis.