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Updated: Aug 3, 2026

Long-term Behavioral and Reproductive Consequences of Embryonic Exposure to Low-dose Toxicants
Published on: March 6, 2018
Intergenerational transfer of Dechlorane Plus and the associated long-term effects on the structure and function of
Guoxia Zhang1, Qiaoqiao Ren2, Shengtao Ma3
1Department of Environmental Health, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, PR China.
Abstract:
The gut microbiota has been shown to be highly involved in many vital physiological processes that play key roles in human health. The intergenerational transfer of Dechlorane Plus (DP) and the complex interaction between DP and microbiota has been poorly studied. Additionally, the structural and functional effects of DP on the gut microbiota have not been studied. This study aimed to investigate the DP transfer in Sprague-Dawley rats during pregnancy and the effects of DP exposure on gut microbiota, as detected by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results showed that excretion in feces is a very important elimination pathway of orally dosed DP. The main intergenerational transfer pathway of DP might be via lactation rather than transplacental transport. The 16S rRNA sequencing revealed that DP exposure could decrease the richness and diversity of gut microbiota, especially at the genus level. Furthermore, in DP exposure groups, the gut microbiota production of metabolites of short-chain fatty acids was dramatically increased. The results demonstrated that DP exposure not only altered the gut microbiota structures, but also immensely influenced metabolic functions, causing long-term impact to offspring. This data indicates that more attention should be paid to the long-term health effects related to DP exposure.
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