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Adverse intrauterine environments, such as hyperglycemia, impair sexual reproduction and species continuity, yet the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrated that intrauterine hyperglycemia significantly disrupted primordial germ cell (PGC) development, especially in female offspring, thus reducing fertility. Using Oct4-EGFP transgenic mice with intrauterine hyperglycemia exposure, we revealed that hyperglycemia compromised sexually specific chromatin accessibility and DNA methylation reprogramming during PGC development. Particularly, in female PGCs, hyperglycemia leads to the aberrant retention of chromatin accessibility at pluripotency gene promoters such as Nanog and Tfap2c, inhibiting proper gene silencing and blocking the initiation of meiosis, which ultimately hinders oocyte maturation. Conversely, male PGCs exhibit less severe changes in chromatin accessibility and gene transcription. Intriguingly, the global DNA methylation reconstruction is impaired in male PGCs, particularly in key imprinted gene regions, suggesting potential developmental ramifications for later stages and even subsequent generations. Particularly, our findings indicate that intrauterine hyperglycemia adversely affects sex differentiation in PGCs by disrupting the expression of critical sex-determining transcription factors. Collectively, these findings highlight how intrauterine hyperglycemia interferes with sex-specific epigenetic reprogramming during PGC development, leading to abnormal germ cell development, reduced fertility, and adverse intergenerational effects.
Cong et al. (Tue,) studied this question.