Ethanol toxicity affects olfactory receptor genes in forebrain of fetal mice

Abstract

Toxicity of ethanol can lead to behavioral and cognitive impairments of fetus. The aim of this current study was to investigate the alteration of genes at developing fetal brain by maternal binge alcohol consumption. Genome-wide transcriptional analysis revealed a set of differentially expressed genes (20 upregulated and 21 down-regulated; 1.5-fold cut-off) on embryonic day 15 (ED 15) in the developing fetal brain. The gene ontology analysis revealed the associations of these genes with sensory perception, whereas Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis showed that they were correlated with olfactory transduction. Six olfactory receptor genes (Olfr960, Olfr1342, Olfr43, Olfr836, Olfr1262 and Olfr1419) encoding proteins involved in the olfactory transduction pathway showed reduced expression levels. The down-regulation of these olfactory receptor genes may cause odor identification defects as well as abnormalities in the olfactory system. Our findings aid in the elucidation of the molecular mechanism underlying the defective olfactory processing that occurs following prenatal alcohol exposure.