Maternal Caffeine Intake Disrupts Eggshell Integrity and Retards Larval Development by Reducing Yolk Production in a Caenorhabditis elegans Model
Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Korea
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Nutrients 2020, 12(5), 1334; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12051334
Received: 7 April 2020
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Revised: 1 May 2020
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Accepted: 6 May 2020
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Published: 7 May 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Mother to Child Health Flow: The Impact of Dietary Habits and Food Choices)
During pregnancy, most women are exposed to caffeine, which is a widely consumed psychoactive substance. However, the consequences of maternal caffeine intake on the child remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated the intergenerational effects of maternal caffeine intake on offspring in a Caenorhabditis elegans model. We treated a young mother (P0) with 10 mM of caffeine equivalent to 2–5 cans of commercial energy drinks and examined its reproduction and growth rate from P0 to F2 generation. The fertility decreased and embryonic lethality increased by defective oocytes and eggshell integrity in caffeine-ingested mothers, and F1 larval development severely retarded. These results were due to decreased production of vitellogenin protein (yolk) in caffeine-ingested mothers. Furthermore, effects of RNA interference of vitellogenin (vit) genes, vit-1 to vit-6, in P0 mothers can mimic those by caffeine-ingested mothers. In addition, RNA interference (RNAi) depletion of unc-62 (human Meis homeobox), a transcriptional activator for vit genes, also showed similar effects induced by caffeine intake. Taken together, maternal caffeine intake reduced yolk production mediated by the UNC-62 transcription factor, thereby disrupting oocyte and eggshell integrity and retarding larval development. Our study suggests the clinical significance of caffeine intake for prospective mothers.
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Keywords:
caffeine; 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine; maternal effect; intergenerational effect; reproduction; yolk protein; vitellogenin; UNC-62; eggshell integrity; Caenorhabditis elegans
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MDPI and ACS Style
Min, H.; Youn, E.; Shim, Y.-H. Maternal Caffeine Intake Disrupts Eggshell Integrity and Retards Larval Development by Reducing Yolk Production in a Caenorhabditis elegans Model. Nutrients 2020, 12, 1334. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12051334
AMA Style
Min H, Youn E, Shim Y-H. Maternal Caffeine Intake Disrupts Eggshell Integrity and Retards Larval Development by Reducing Yolk Production in a Caenorhabditis elegans Model. Nutrients. 2020; 12(5):1334. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12051334
Chicago/Turabian StyleMin, Hyemin, Esther Youn, and Yhong-Hee Shim. 2020. "Maternal Caffeine Intake Disrupts Eggshell Integrity and Retards Larval Development by Reducing Yolk Production in a Caenorhabditis elegans Model" Nutrients 12, no. 5: 1334. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12051334
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