Nature Genetics
28, 355 - 360 (2001)
Published online: 16 July 2001; | doi:10.1038/ng575
Aromatic hydrocarbon receptor-driven Bax gene expression is required for premature ovarian failure caused by biohazardous environmental chemicalsTiina Matikainen1, Gloria I. Perez1, Andrea Jurisicova1, 2, James K. Pru1, Jennifer J. Schlezinger3, Heui-Young Ryu3, Jarmo Laine4, Toshiyuki Sakai5, Stanley J. Korsmeyer6, Robert F. Casper2, David H. Sherr3
& Jonathan L. Tilly11
Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. 2
Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X5, Canada. 3
Department of Environmental Health, Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA. 4
Division of Immunology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. 5
Department of Preventive Medicine, Kyoto Prefectural University School of Medicine, Kyoto 602-8566, Japan. 6
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Departments of Pathology and Medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Correspondence should be addressed to Jonathan L. Tilly jtilly@partners.orgPolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are toxic chemicals released into the environment by fossil fuel combustion. Moreover, a primary route of human exposure to PAHs is tobacco smoke1,
2. Oocyte destruction and ovarian failure occur in PAH-treated mice1,
2, and cigarette smoking causes early menopause in women1,
3. In many cells, PAHs activate the aromatic hydrocarbon receptor (Ahr), a member of the Per-Arnt-Sim family of transcription factors4,
5. The Ahr is also activated by dioxin, one of the most intensively studied environmental contaminants. Here we show that an exposure of mice to PAHs induces the expression of Bax in oocytes6, followed by apoptosis. Ovarian damage caused by PAHs is prevented by Ahr or Bax inactivation. Oocytes microinjected with a Bax promoter−reporter construct show Ahr-dependent transcriptional activation after PAH, but not dioxin, treatment, consistent with findings that dioxin is not cytotoxic to oocytes. This difference in the action of PAHs versus dioxin is conveyed by a single base pair flanking each Ahr response element in the Bax promoter. Oocytes in human ovarian biopsies grafted into immunodeficient mice also accumulate Bax and undergo apoptosis after PAH exposure in vivo. Thus, Ahr-driven Bax transcription is a novel and evolutionarily conserved cell-death signaling pathway responsible for environmental toxicant-induced ovarian failure.
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