Transcriptomic profiles of the ovaries from piglets neonatally exposed to 4-tert-octylphenol

Abstract

The environmental pollutants with hormonal activities may influence steroid-mediated processes in neonatal ovaries and increase the incidence of reproductive disorders. The aim of the current study was to examine effects of 4-tert-octylphenol (OP), a non-ionic surfactant widely used in a variety of industrial applications which has been reported to mimic the 17β-estradiol activity, on the expression of protein-coding (mRNAs) and long non-coding (lncRNAs) transcripts in neonatal ovaries of the pig. By employing RNA-Seq we aimed to gain insights into regulatory networks underlying the OP effects on the follicular development in pigs. Piglets were injected (sc) daily with OP (100 mg/kg bw) or corn oil (controls) between postnatal Days 1 and 10 (n = 3/group). Ovaries were excised from the 11-day-old piglets and total cellular RNA was isolated and sequenced. Two hundred three differentially expressed genes (DEGs; P-adjusted < 0.05 and log₂ fold change ≥1.0) and 23 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DELs; P-adjusted < 0.05 and log₂ fold change ≥ 1.0) were identified in OP-treated piglet ovaries. The DEGs were assigned to Gene Ontology terms, covering biological processes, molecular functions and cellular components, which linked the DEGs to functions associated with movement of cell or subcellular component, regulation of plasma membrane bounded cell projection assembly as well as hydrolase and endopeptidase activity. In addition, STRING analysis demonstrated the strongest interactions between genes related to negative regulation of endopeptidase activity. Some correlations between DEGs and DELs were also found, revealing that the OP action on the ovary may be partially executed via the changes in the lncRNA expression. These results suggest that neonatal exposure of pigs to OP induces changes in the ovarian transcriptomic profile associated with genes encoding serine protease inhibitors and involved in steroid synthesis as well as genes linked to intracellular and membrane transport. We suggest that the changes in the mRNA and lncRNA expression in the ovaries of OP-treated piglets may disturb ovarian cellular function, including steroidogenesis, proliferation and apoptosis.

Keywords: Estrogen agonist; Ovary; Pig; lncRNA; mRNA; transcriptome.