IFN-γ mediated neuroinflammation and behaviour abnormality after maternal exposure to low dose mixture of food additives and pesticides

ABSTRACT People often simultaneously expose to acceptable/tolerable daily intake of food additives and pesticides in daily life. Exposure in adult rodents to acceptable/tolerable daily intake of food additives and pesticides chemical mixtures (AFACM) is reported to cause health damage. Our recently study reported that AFACM exposure of pregnant mice resulted in neuroinflammation and abnormal emotional behaviours in offspring. Here, we found that neutralising IFN-γ with neutralising antibodies completely blocked the influences induced by maternal AFACM exposure, including the increased IFN-γ level in serum, increased IFN-γ, interleukin-6 and tumour necrosis factor-α levels in prefrontal cortex(PFC) in offspring on postnatal day(PND)7, the abnormal emotional behaviours in offspring on PND56, and the decreased of ATPase phospholipid flippase 8A2(ATP8A2) in the PFC of offspring on PND7. In sum, maternal AFACM exposure induced the PFC neuroinflammation, abnormal emotional behaviours and decreased PFC ATP8A2 expression through increasing systemic IFN-γ in offspring.