Exposure to Propylthiouracil in Pregnant Mice Potentiates the Transcriptional Response to Thyroid Hormone in the Fetal Cerebral Cortex

Although the effects of thyroid hormones (TH) on the brain development have been extensively studied perinatally, effects of TH of maternal origin on the fetal brain development have been largely unexplored. We applied a high throughput study on the mouse models with aberrant TH levels on gestation day (GD) 16, before the onset of fetal thyroid function. Although 3 day treatment with methimazole (MMI) and perchlorate significantly decreased TH levels in fetal cerebral cortex, few changes in the abundance of mRNA were revealed by the microarray analysis. Injection TH to dams 12 hours before sacrifice on GD 16 induced 161 genes significantly changed in fetal cortex. Nine out of 10 selected genes were confirmed with RT-PCR, including known TH responsive gene Klf9 and other novel TH responsive genes such as Appbp2, Ppap2b and Fgfr1op2. TH regulation of the expression of these genes was also confirmed with cultured N2a cells. Thyroid responsive elements (TREs) in the promoters of these genes were identified using electrophoresis mobility shift assay. TH effect on microRNA (miRNA) expression in developing cortex on GD 16 and postnatal day (PND) 15 was investigated with microarray and RT-PCR. Some of miRNAs and precursors decreased in fetal cortex from the dams injected with TH on GD 16, including miR-16 and miR-106. Using 3 untranslate region reporter vector, we identified Klf9 is one of the target genes of miR-106, while Ppap2b is the target of miR-16. These results indicated that TH regulation on gene expression could through TR-TRE interaction and through regulating target miRNA expression. This study is the first report to identify TH responsive genes and miRNAs genome wide in the early fetal brain; it provides evidence to further understand the mechanism of TH effect on brain development.

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Dong H, You SH, Williams A, Wade MG, Yauk CL, Thomas Zoeller R