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Updated: Oct 23, 2025

Author Spotlight: Exploring the Long-Term Health Impacts of Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection on Offspring
Published on: May 17, 2024
Intrauterine hyperglycemia impairs memory across two generations
Kexin Zou1,2,3, Jun Ren4, Sisi Luo1,2,3
1The International Peace Maternity and Child Health Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Abstract:
Studies on humans and animals suggest associations between gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) with increased susceptibility to develop neurological disorders in offspring. However, the molecular mechanisms underpinning the intergenerational effects remain unclear. Using a mouse model of diabetes during pregnancy, we found that intrauterine hyperglycemia exposure resulted in memory impairment in both the first filial (F1) males and the second filial (F2) males from the F1 male offspring. Transcriptome profiling of F1 and F2 hippocampi revealed that differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were enriched in neurodevelopment and synaptic plasticity. The reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) of sperm in F1 adult males showed that the intrauterine hyperglycemia exposure caused altered methylated modification of F1 sperm, which is a potential epigenetic mechanism for the intergenerational neurocognitive effects of GDM.
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