This study was conducted to analyse MIA Induced Dopaminergic Dysfunctions. The research was done by using animal models suggests that maternal immune activation (MIA) can induce transgenerational effects on brain and behavior, possibly through epigenetic mechanisms. .
In the present study, the researchers investigated whether the transgenerational effects of MIA are extendable to dysfunctions in the central dopamine (DA) system. Based on the existing evidence, there is a genuine possibility for transgenerational effects on DA functions to occur after MIA. Even if this recent study did not specifically explore transgenerational effects of T. gondii infection on DA functions, it provides support to the hypothesis that antenatal immune challenges can induce transgenerational effects via stable epigenetic modifications in male gametes.
Here, they used the poly(I:C)-based mouse model [4] to study the transgenerational effects of MIA on DA dysfunctions. Functional changes in the DA system were assessed by testing the animals’ locomotor response to the indirect DA receptor agonist, amphetamine (Amph).
As a conclusion we can say that these studies thus suggest that MIA can induce epigenetic modifications in both somatic and (male) germ cells, which in turn may point to a potential mechanism by which MIA can induce pathologies in multiple generations even in the absence of additional immune exposures.
Ref: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-020-00855-w
