Repeated gestational exposure of mice to chlorpyrifos oxon is associated with paraoxonase 1 (PON1)-modulated effects in maternal and fetal tissues

Chlorpyrifos oxon (CPO), the toxic metabolite of the organophosphorus (OP) insecticide chlorpyrifos, causes developmental neurotoxicity in humans and rodents. CPO is hydrolyzed by paraoxonase-1 (PON1), with protection determined by PON1 levels and the human Q192R polymorphism. To examine how the Q192R polymorphism influences fetal toxicity associated with gestational CPO exposure, we measured biomarker inhibition and fetal-brain gene expression in wild-type (PON1+/+), PON1-knockout (PON1-/-), and tgHuPON1R192 and tgHuPON1Q192 transgenic mice. Pregnant mice exposed dermally to 0, 0.50, 0.75 or 0.85 mg/kg/d CPO from gestational days (GD) 6 through 17 were sacrificed on GD18. Biomarkers of CPO exposure inhibited in maternal tissues included brain acetylcholinesterase (AChE), RBC acylpeptide hydrolase (APH), plasma butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) and carboxylesterase (CES). Fetal plasma BChE was inhibited in PON1-/- and tgHuPON1Q192, but not PON1+/+ or tgHuPON1R192 mice. Fetal brain AChE and plasma CES were inhibited in PON1-/- mice, but not in other genotypes. Pregnant mice (wild type (WT), PON1-knockout (KO), tgHuPON1R192 (R-tg) and tgHuPON1Q192 (Q-tg)) were exposed to various amounts of CPO (0, 0.5, 0.75 and 0.85 mg/kg/d) for 12 days (gestational days 6-17). On gestational day 18, dams were sacrificed and fetal brains were collected. A total of 264 fetal brains from 80 dams were processed to extract total RNA using TRIZOL and the QIAamp Tissue kit from QIAGEN. Microarray analysis was performed using the fetuses of 5 dams per experimental group (total RNA was pooled from individual fetal brains from each dam). The dams used for fetal-brain microarray analysis were selected using a random-number generator, after first eliminating dams with brain AChE activities > 1.5 SD compared to the mean for their treatment group. RNA samples isolated from individual fetal brains from each dam were combined, then labeled and hybridized to Affymetrix Mouse Gene 1.0 ST microarrays.