Chronic Exposure to Uranium from Gestation: Effects on Behavior and Neurogenesis in Adulthood

Uranium exposure leads to cerebral dysfunction involving for instance biochemical, neurochemical and neurobehavioral effects. Most studies have focused on mechanisms in uranium-exposed adult animals. However, recent data on developing animals have shown that the developing brain is also sensitive to uranium. Models of uranium exposure during brain development highlight the need to improve our understanding of the effects of uranium. In a model in which uranium exposure began from the first day of gestation, we studied the neurobehavioral consequences as well as the progression of hippocampal neurogenesis in animals from dams exposed to uranium. Our results show that 2-month-old rats exposed to uranium from gestational day 1 displayed deficits in special memory and a prominent depressive-like phenotype. Cell proliferation was not disturbed in these animals, as shown by 5-bromo-2′deoxyuridine (BrdU)/neuronal specific nuclear protein (NeuN) immunostaining in the dentate gyrus. However, in some animals, the pyramidal cell layer was dispersed in the CA3 region. From our previous results with the same model, the hypothesis of alterations of neurogenesis at prior stages of development is worth considering, but is probably not the only one. Therefore, further investigations are needed to correlate cerebral dysfunction and its underlying mechanistic pathways.