Dietary early-life exposure to contaminated eels does not impair spatial cognitive performances in adult offspring mice as assessed in the Y-maze and the Morris water maze

Many environmental contaminants are introduced via the diet and may act as neurotoxins and endocrine disrupters, especially influencing growing organisms in early life. The purpose of this study was to examine whether dietary exposure of dams to fish naturally contaminated with xenobiotics, especially with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and heavy metals (e.g. mercury and lead), resulted in cognitive function deficits in adult offspring mice. Daily, four groups of dams (n = 10/group) ingested standard diet plus paste with/without eels, during gestation and lactation, from gestational day (GD) six until post natal day (PND) 21 (weaning). Dams orally ingested a standardized amount of eel (0.8 mgkg^-1d^-1) containing the six non-dioxin-like (NDL) PCBs (σ6 NDL-PCBs: 28, 52, 101, 138, 153, and 180) at 0, 85, 216, and 400 ngkg^-1d^-1. Results showed that early-life exposure to contaminated eels did not (compared to non-exposed controls) impair immediate working memory in the Y-maze in the offspring assessed at PND 38. Furthermore, it did not significantly impact spatial learning and retention memory as measured in the Morris water maze in adult offspring mice (PND 120-123). Our results suggest that perinatal exposure to contaminated eels does not affect spatial cognitive performances, as assessed by the Y-maze and Morris water maze at adult age. Adverse effects of xenobiotics reported earlier might be camouflaged by beneficial eel constituents, such as n-3 fatty acids. However, additional studies are needed to differentiate between potential positive and negative effects following consumption of food items both rich in nutrients and contaminants.