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The Toxicologist - Society of Toxicology

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(p 9 weeks)<br />

and CSC phenotype acquired. This phenotype appears to be associated with aberrant<br />

expression <strong>of</strong> at least some imprinted genes. This indicates that arsenic, a ubiquitous<br />

environmental contaminant and known human carcinogen, directly transforms<br />

stem cells into pluripotent CSCs. Thus, stem cells appear to be a primary<br />

target for arsenic-induced transplacental carcinogenic initiation.<br />

2666 ACTIVATION OF THE ARYL HYDROCARBON<br />

RECEPTOR REPROGRAMS THE DEVELOPING<br />

IMMUNE SYSTEM.<br />

B. Winans, S. R. Marr and B. Lawrence. Department <strong>of</strong> Environmental Medicine,<br />

University <strong>of</strong> Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY.<br />

It is becoming increasingly recognized that early life exposure to environmental<br />

agents can lead to persistent alterations in immune function, but the mechanism by<br />

which this occurs is not yet known. To investigate the susceptibility <strong>of</strong> the developing<br />

immune system to reprogramming, our laboratory uses 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin<br />

(TCDD) as a model developmental immunotoxicant and<br />

influenza A virus as a prototypical human pathogen. TCDD is a ubiquitous pollutant,<br />

and represents a category <strong>of</strong> agents that activate the aryl hydrocarbon receptor<br />

(AhR), which recent studies suggest plays a role in developmental regulation. Our<br />

laboratory has demonstrated that developmental activation <strong>of</strong> AhR leads to persistent<br />

alterations in the immune response to influenza A virus in adult mice; specifically,<br />

there is a reduced clonal expansion and differentiation <strong>of</strong> CD8 + T cells.<br />

Further, this alteration results from a direct effect on hematopoietic cells. <strong>The</strong>se<br />

findings show that sustained AhR activation reprograms the developing immune<br />

system, leading to persistent functional deregulation. Given that this change in<br />

SOT 2011 ANNUAL MEETING 571

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