Publications by authors named "Ramji K Bhandari"

Eggs and sperm are responsible for the continuation of generations. Following the epigenetic reprogramming of the embryo, core epigenetic information present in the sperm and eggs is transmitted to offspring somatic cells prior to the blastula stage, which specifically influences gene expression in the cells. Differences in the patterns of DNA methylation between the paternal and maternal genomes are critical to regulating allele-specific gene expression in the developing embryo, constituting the basis of genomic imprinting in mammals.

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The progression of fatty liver disease to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a leading cause of death in humans. Lifestyles and environmental chemical exposures can increase the susceptibility of humans to NASH. In humans, the presence of bisphenol A (BPA) in urine is associated with fatty liver disease, but whether ancestral BPA exposure leads to the activation of human NAFLD-NASH-associated genes in the unexposed descendants is unclear.

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Bisphenol-A (BPA), a known endocrine-disrupting chemical (EDC) in plastics and resins, has been found to induce heritable health effects in fish and mammals, affecting directly exposed individuals and indirectly their progenies in subsequent generations. It is not clearly understood if subsequent generations of the BPA-exposed ancestors have increased sensitivity to the second hit by the chemicals of emerging concern. To understand this, the present study examined the effects of developmental exposure to perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), which has been a global contaminant recently, in embryos whose ancestors were exposed to BPA.

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Acrylamide (ACR) is an industrial chemical used to produce polyacrylamide, a synthetic polymer with a wide range of applications. Depending on the dosage, its presence in occupational and environmental sources poses potential health risks to humans and animals. ACR can be formed in starchy foods cooked at high temperatures.

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The progression of fatty liver disease to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a leading cause of death in humans. Lifestyles and environmental chemical exposures can increase the susceptibility of humans to NASH. In humans, the presence of bisphenol A (BPA) in urine is associated with fatty liver disease, but whether ancestral BPA exposure leads to the activation of human NAFLD-NASH-associated genes in the unexposed descendants is unclear.

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Background: The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recommended lowering their estimated tolerable daily intake (TDI) for bisphenol A (BPA) 20,000-fold to . BPA is an extensively studied high production volume endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) associated with a vast array of diseases. Prior risk assessments of BPA by EFSA as well as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have relied on industry-funded studies conducted under good laboratory practice protocols (GLP) requiring guideline end points and detailed record keeping, while also claiming to examine (but rejecting) thousands of published findings by academic scientists.

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The use of glyphosate-based herbicides is increasing yearly to keep up with the growing demands of the agriculture world. Although glyphosate-based herbicides target the enzymatic pathway in plants, the effects on the endocrine systems of vertebrate organisms, mainly fish, are widely unknown. Many studies with glyphosate used high-exposure concentrations (mg/L), and the effect of environmentally relevant or lower concentrations has not been clearly understood.

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Fish inhabiting various trophic levels are affected differently as the presence of microplastic (MP) in the water column and their ingestion by fish varies. Walking catfish (Clarias batrachus) inhabits the bottom of the water bodies. To understand the effects of MP, we exposed C.

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As a heterogeneous reproductive disorder, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) can be caused by genetic, diet, and environmental factors. Bisphenol A (BPA) can induce PCOS and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) due to direct exposure; however, whether these phenotypes persist in future unexposed generations is not currently understood. In a previous study, we observed that transgenerational NAFLD persisted in female medaka for five generations (F4) after exposure to an environmentally relevant concentration (10 μg/L) of BPA.

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Bisphenol F (BPF) has been used in the syntheses of polymers, which are widely used in coatings, varnishes, adhesives, and other plastics. During the past decades, BPF contamination in the aquatic environment has dramatically increased due to its release from manmade products. Concerns have driven much attention to whether it may adversely impact aquatic lives or human beings.

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With the legalization of marijuana smoking in several states of the United States and many other countries for medicinal and recreational use, the possibility of its release into the environment cannot be overruled. Currently, the environmental levels of marijuana metabolites are not monitored on a regular basis, and their stability in the environment is not well understood. Laboratory studies have linked delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ-THC) exposure with behavioral abnormalities in some fish species; however, their effects on endocrine organs are less understood.

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The CRISPR/dCas9-based epigenome editing technique has driven much attention. Fused with a catalytic domain from Dnmt or Tet protein, the CRISPR/dCas9-DnmtCD or -TetCD systems possess the targeted DNA methylation editing ability and have established a series of and disease models. However, no publication has been reported on zebrafish (), an important animal model in biomedicine.

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Thiamethoxam (THM), a type III systemic neonicotinoid insecticide, is widely used in agriculture in many countries, including Bangladesh. THM can enter the aquatic systems through the runoff, spray-drift and groundwater leaching and can affect the aquatic organisms, including fish. Current environmental levels of THM in Bangladesh waters are variable.

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Systems genetics is key for integrating a large number of variants associated with diseases. Vitamin K (VK) is one of the scarcely studied disease conditions. In this work, we ascertained the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and variants associated with individual subpopulations of VK disease phenotypes, .

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Environmental chemicals can induce liver defects in experimental animals due to their direct and acute exposure. It is not clear whether environmental chemical exposures result in the transgenerational passage of liver defects in subsequent generations living in an uncontaminated environment. Bisphenol A (BPA), a plasticizer chemical, has been ubiquitous in the environment in the recent decade.

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Perchlorate is a chemical compound commonly used in military artillery and equipment. It has been detected in drinking water, air, soil, and breast milk. Exposure of humans to perchlorate can occur in the theater of war and areas adjacent to military training grounds.

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MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in growth, development, stress resilience, and epigenetic modifications of plants. However, the effect of calcium (Ca) deficiency on miRNA expression in the orphan crop tef ( remains unknown. In this study, we analyzed expression of miRNAs in roots and shoots of tef in response to Ca treatment.

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Endocrine disrupting contaminants are of continuing concern for potentially contributing to reproductive dysfunction in largemouth and smallmouth bass in the Chesapeake Bay watershed (CBW) and elsewhere. Exposures to atrazine (ATR) have been hypothesized to have estrogenic effects on vertebrate endocrine systems. The incidence of intersex in male smallmouth bass from some regions of CBW has been correlated with ATR concentrations in water.

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Bisphenol-A is one of the most studied endocrine-chemicals, which is widely used all over the world in plastic manufacture. Because of its extensive use, it has become one of the most abundant chemical environmental pollutants, especially in aquatic environments. BPA is known to affect fish reproduction via estrogen receptors but many studies advocate that BPA affects almost all aspects of fish physiology.

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Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), such as bisphenol A (BPA) and 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2), can have far reaching health effects, including transgenerational abnormalities in offspring that never directly contacted either chemical. We previously reported reduced fertilization rates and embryo survival at F2 and F3 generations caused by 7-day embryonic exposure (F0) to 100 μg/L BPA or 0.05 μg/L EE2 in medaka.

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MicroRNAs (i.e. miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that play essential modulation roles in embryonic development in vertebrates.

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Triclosan (TCS), an antibacterial and antifungal agent present in some consumer products, has been detected in the environment at varying concentrations. TCS exposure has been found to cause developmental abnormalities and endocrine disruption in various species of fish. It is not clearly understood whether TCS exposure causes epigenetic alterations in developing embryos and their germ cells.

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DNA methylation is a major epigenetic modification that undergoes dramatic changes in two epigenetic reprogramming windows during development: first in preimplantation embryos and second in primordial germ cell (PGC) specification. In both windows, DNA methylation patterns are reprogrammed genome-wide, and the majority of inherited methylation marks are erased, generating cells with broad developmental potential. Recent studies reported that the reprogramming of genome methylation in medaka is similar to human and mouse, suggesting that medaka may serve as a suitable biomedical model for comparative studies focused on the epigenetic and transgenerational inheritance of phenotypic traits.

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Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can induce abnormalities in organisms via alteration of molecular pathways and subsequent disruption of endocrine functions. Bisphenol A (BPA) and 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) are ubiquitous EDCs in the environment. Many aquatic organisms, including fish, are often exposed to varying concentrations of BPA and EE2 throughout their lifespan.

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