Environmentally Induced Alterations In Neuron And Glia D

发育中的神经系统对环境因素的易感性一直是儿童健康问题的一个主要关切。虽然目前暴露于环境物质的水平并不代表急性损伤，但神经系统的破坏可能与神经网络形成和/或神经系统功能的结构改变有关。大脑中各种细胞类型的形成和相互作用是关键的定时事件。这种脆弱性窗口被认为是发育中的生物体对环境侮辱的不同易感性的主要组成部分。该项目研究了神经系统发育过程中化学诱导的扰动，通过发育中的大脑形态和分子谱的各种改变以及这种暴露的相关神经行为结果来表明。正在研究的具体项目包括：1)硫柳汞对未成熟SJL自身免疫小鼠的神经行为影响，复制和扩展包括脑区和汞分布的无偏体视学的文献报道。2)与毒理学操作部门合作，我们正在积极建立小鼠模型，以检查在妊娠和产后发育期间扰乱甲状腺激素稳态维持的环境化学物质的神经发育毒性。除了在发育过程中发生的变化，该项目还将关注与潜在影响或对老年大脑的影响有关的问题，这些影响是早期发育过程中接触环境化学物质的结果。在这些研究中，我们继续使用多种方法来检查暴露于环境因子后发育中的神经系统的变化，包括免疫组织化学，检测mRNA水平的分子技术，以及评估神经行为功能。

The susceptibility of the developing nervous system to environmental agents has been a major concern with regard to children's health issues. While current exposure levels to environmental agents does not represent an acute injury, disruption to the nervous system may be associated with either a structural alteration in the formation of the neural network and/or in nervous system functioning. The formation and interactions between the various cell types in the brain are critically timed events.Such windows of vulnerability is assummed to be a major component in the differential susceptibility of the developing organism to environmental insult. This project examines chemical induced perturbations during development of the nervous system as indicated by various alterations in the morphology and molecular profile in the developing brain and assoicated neurobehavioral outcome of such exposure. The specific projects under study include 1) Neurobehavioral effects of thimerosal administered to immature SJL autoimmune mice, replication and expansion of literature report including unbiased stereology of brain regions and mercury distribution. 2) Working with the Toxicology Operations Branch, we are actively establishing a mouse model to examine the neurodevelopmental toxicities of environmental chemicals that perturb thyroid hormone homeostatic maintenance during gestational and postnatal development. In addition to changes occurring during development, this project will also focus on questions related to either latent effects or effects on the aged brain as the result of early developmental exposure to environmental chemicals. For these studies we continue to use a number of methods to examine alterations in the developing nervous system following exposure to environmental agents including immunohistochemistry, molecular techniques to examine mRNA levels, as well as assessment of neurobehavioral functioning.