Female offspring of mice perinatally exposed to benzophenone-3 showed early subfertility linked to a poor oocyte stockpile

GALLIANI, VALENTINA; ABUD, JULIÁN; ZENCLUSSEN ML; RODRIGUEZ, HORACIO A.

ARCHIVES OF TOXICOLOGY.

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2024

0340-5761

Previously, we found that the ultraviolet filter benzophenone-3 (BP3) causes fetalgrowth restriction in mice when is applied when implantation occurs (first week ofgestation). However, whether BP3 can affect gestation and fertility after implantationperiod is unknown. We aimed to study the effects on reproductive physiology of theoffspring caused by perinatal exposure to BP3. C57BL/6 pregnant mice were dermallyexposed to 50 mg BP3/kg bw.day or olive oil (vehicle) from gestation day 9 (gd9) topostnatal day 21 (pnd1). We observed no differences in mother’s weights, duration ofgestation, number of pups per mother, onset of puberty or sex ratio. The weights of thepups exposed to benzophenone-3 were transiently lower than those of the control.Estrous cycle was not affected by perinatal exposure to BP3. Besides, we performed afertility assessment by continuous breeding protocol: at 10 weeks of age, one F1female and one F1 male mouse from each group was randomly chosen from each litterand housed together for a period of 6 months. We noticed a reduction in the number ofdeliveries per mother among dams exposed to BP3 during the perinatal period. To seeif this decreased fertility could be associated to an early onset of oocytes depletion, weestimated the ovarian reserve of germ cells. We found reduced number of oocytes andprimordial follicles in BP3. In conclusion, perinatal exposure to BP3 leads to a declinein the reproductive capacity of female mice in a continuous breeding protocol linked tooocyte depletion