Paternal exposure to exercise and/or caffeine and alcohol modify offspring behavioral and pathophysiological recovery from repetitive mild traumatic brain injury in adolescence

Eric Eyolfson; Dhyey Bhatt; Melinda Wang; Alexander W Lohman; Richelle Mychasiuk

doi:10.1111/gbb.12736

Paternal exposure to exercise and/or caffeine and alcohol modify offspring behavioral and pathophysiological recovery from repetitive mild traumatic brain injury in adolescence

Genes Brain Behav. 2021 Apr 19:egbb12736. doi: 10.1111/gbb.12736. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Eric Eyolfson^{1

2}, Dhyey Bhatt^{2

3}, Melinda Wang², Alexander W Lohman^{2

3}, Richelle Mychasiuk^{1

2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
² Hotchkiss Brain Institute and Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
³ Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
⁴ Department of Neuroscience, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

PMID: 33876557
DOI: 10.1111/gbb.12736

Abstract

Only recently has the scope of parental research expanded to include the paternal sphere with epidemiological studies implicating stress, nutrition and alcohol consumption in the neurobiological and behavioral characteristics of offspring. This study was designed to determine if paternal exposure to caffeine, alcohol and exercise prior to conception would improve or exacerbate offspring recovery from adolescent repetitive mild traumatic brain injury (RmTBI). Sires received 7 weeks of standard drinking water, or caffeine and ethanol and were housed in regular cages or cages with running wheels, prior to being mated to control females. At postnatal day 40, offspring were administered RmTBI or sham injuries and were assessed for post concussive symptomology. Post-mortem quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to assess gene expression in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), nucleus accumbens (NAc) and changes in telomere length. Additionally, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA's) were run on serum to detect levels of cytokines, chemokines and sex hormones. Paternal experience did not improve or exacerbate RmTBI behavioral outcomes. However, female and male offspring displayed unique responses to RmTBI and paternal experience, resulting in changes in physical, behavioral and molecular outcomes. Injury and paternal exercise modified changes in female offspring, whereas male offspring were affected by paternal exercise, caffeine and alcohol treatment. Additionally, paternal experience and RmTBI modified expression of many genes in the PFC, NAc, telomere length and levels of sex hormones. Although further exploration is required to understand the heterogeneity that exists in disease risk and resiliency, this study provides corroborating evidence that paternal experiences prior to conception influences offspring development.

Keywords: concussion; cytokines; fathers; mRNA; nucleus accumbens; prefrontal cortex; telomere length.

Abstract

Grants and funding