DEHP and DINP Induce Tissue- and Gender-Specific Disturbances in Fatty Acid and Lipidomic Profiles in Neonatal Mice: A Comparative Study

Di-isononyl phthalate (DINP) is considered one of the main industrial alternatives to di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), a well-known chemical with various toxic effects including the disruption with lipid metabolism. However, potential effects of DINP on lipid metabolism have rarely been investigated in mammals. Our study demonstrated that exposure of neonatal mice to DEHP and DINP at a daily dose of 0.048 or 4.8 mg/kg from postnatal day 0 (PND0) to PND21 caused non-monotonic, as well as tissue- and gender-specific, alterations of total fatty acid (FA) compositions in plasma, heart and adipose tissues. However, the patterns of disruption differed between DEHP- and DINP-treated groups. Based on targeted lipidomic analyses, we further identified gender-specific alterations of eight lipid classes in plasma following DEHP or DINP exposure. At the higher dose DEHP induced decreases in total phosphatidylcholines (PC) and phosphatidylinositol (PI) in females and increases in phosphatidylethanolamines (PE) and t...