A new study from Thomas Jefferson University recently revealed that more than 3,500 genes in the hippocampus, a portion of the brain involved in learning and memory, are impacted by lead poisoning.
Lead exposure during early childhood can result in "severe cognitive and behavioral impairments in children" lasting well into adolescence and adulthood, a EurekAlert! report specified.
Even though researchers have looked at the impacts of early life lead exposure on a small number of genes involved in memory, learning, and brain development, a study was lacking as to the entire extent of the toxicity.
The study also demonstrates that offering animals stimulating environments early in life can invert the large majority of such genetic alterations, reinforcing the possibly vital role of early-childhood education in combining the impacts of poisoning from lead.
Lead Exposure
According to Jay Schneider, Ph.D. the study's senior author and professor of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology at Thomas Jefferson University, children living in housing stock built before 1978, the year when lead was prohibited as an ingredient in pain, are at high risk of exposure to lead "from lead dust or chipping and peeling lead-containing paint in their homes."
Recent estimates have suggested that at least 500,000 in the United States have blood lead levels at or over amounts that can negatively impact cognitive function, a similar Today UK News report said.
Schneider also said that their work shows that by offering an enriched early life environment, the negative impacts of lead on the brain may be minimized or reversed, emphasizing how essential early "childhood interventions may be."
Together with Garima Singh, Ph.D. the lead author of the study and a research assistant professor in the Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology and colleagues, the study investigators looked at rats that were exposed to lead from birth to the time of weaning, at age 21 days.
Effect on the Brain
The researchers observed changes in the genes' expression from the portion of the brain involved in memory, particularly the hippocampal region.
They discovered that the expression of levels of more than 3,500 genes was impacted by the lead exposure, either irregularly swirling out more or less of their gene products, a similar Medical Xpress report specified.
Effects of #leadpoisoning may be reversible with early-childhood enrichment @SciReports https://t.co/fRZ7wgCThC
— Medical Xpress (@medical_xpress) July 25, 2022
Such data reveal for the first time that at a genome-wide level, a big number of hippocampal genes involved in different biological processes and functions are impacted by exposure to lead and further altered by an enriched environment, explained Dr. Schneider.
In rats exposed to lead, the genes affected were those involved in memory and nerve signaling pathways and those involved in the brain department.
Nonetheless, approximately 80 percent of the gene expression changes generated by lead exposure were reversed in the group of animals living in the stimulating environment until the 55th day, which is approximately identical to human adolescence.
Related information about lead poisoning is shown on Nabil Ebraheim's YouTube video below:
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