ArticleThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2018
Perinatal Exposure to an Environmentally Relevant Mixture of Phthalates Results in a Lower Number of Neurons and Synapses in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Decreased Cognitive Flexibility in Adult Male and Female Rats.
Article in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sex-dependent vulnerability to early-life phthalates exposure and autism spectrum disorders: a systematic review.Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Prenatal and childhood exposure to common plasticizers and risk-taking behavior in young adolescents.Environmental research · 2026Article
- Learning and memory performance in a rat model of perigestational opioid exposure.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Prenatal exposure to di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate alters the association of glutamatergic proteins with PTEN in the hippocampus of male rat offspring.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2026Article
- Developmental Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors and Persistent Pollutants Heightens Addiction Risk via Toxicological Mechanisms.Biomolecules & therapeutics · 2026Review
- Perinatal exposure to the environmental pollutant butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP) induces sex-specific alterations in the neuro-immune-endocrine network in adult rats.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Phthalates Induced Neurotoxicity: A Mechanistic Approach.Central nervous system agents in medicinal chemistry · 2026Review
- Learning and Memory Performance in a Rat Model of Perigestational Opioid Exposure.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Prenatal environmental risk for adolescent attention, thought, and substance use problems: A mixtures approach to coexposure and psychiatric comorbidities.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2025Article
- Plasma phthalate levels in children with speech delay.Toxicology reports · 2025Article
- Opioidergic activation of the descending pain inhibitory system underlies placebo analgesia.Science advances · 2025Article
- Timing of Methamphetamine Exposure during Adolescence Differentially Influences Parvalbumin and Perineuronal Net Immunoreactivity in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex of Female, but Not Male, Rats.Developmental neuroscience · 2025Article
- Children's exposure to chemical contaminants: Demographic disparities and associations with the developing basal ganglia.Environmental research · 2024Article
- Disrupted Prenatal Metabolism May Explain the Etiology of Suboptimal Neurodevelopment: A Focus on Phthalates and Micronutrients and their Relationship to Autism Spectrum Disorder.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2024Review
- Prenatal Di-methoxyethyl phthalate exposure impairs cortical neurogenesis and synaptic activity in the mice.Brain pathology (Zurich, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Impact of Long-Lasting Environmental Factors on Regulation Mediated by the miR-34 Family.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- The last stage of development: The restructuring and plasticity of the cortex during adolescence especially at puberty.Developmental psychobiology · 2024Article
- Paternal and maternal preconception and maternal pregnancy urinary phthalate metabolite and BPA concentrations in relation to child behavior.Environment international · 2024Article
- A role for adverse childhood experiences and depression in preeclampsia.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2024Article
- Prenatal exposure to common plasticizers: a longitudinal study on phthalates, brain volumetric measures, and IQ in youth.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The growth and organization of the developing brain are known to be influenced by hormones, but little is known about whether disruption of hormones affects cortical regions, such as mPFC. This region is particularly important given its involvement in executive functions and implication in the pathology of many neuropsychiatric disorders. Here, we examine the long-term effects of perinatal exposure to endocrine-disrupting compounds, the phthalates, on the mPFC and associated behavior. This investigation is pertinent as humans are ubiquitously exposed to phthalates through a variety of consumer products and phthalates can readily cross the placenta and be delivered to offspring via lactation. Pregnant dams orally consumed an environmentally relevant mixture of phthalates at 0, 200, or 1000 μg/kg/d through pregnancy and for 10 d while lactating. As adults, offspring were tested in an attentional set-shifting task, which assesses cognitive flexibility. Brains were also examined in adulthood for stereological quantification of the number of neurons, glia, and synapses within the mPFC. We found that, independent of sex, perinatal phthalate exposure at either dose resulted in a reduction in neuron number, synapse number, and size of the mPFC and a deficit in cognitive flexibility. Interestingly, the number of synapses was correlated with cognitive flexibility, such that rats with fewer synapses were less cognitively flexible than those with more synapses. These results demonstrate that perinatal phthalate exposure can have long-term effects on the cortex and behavior of both male and female rats.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.