Fig. 1.

Schematic early life exposures to the environmental toxicant TCE induce liver abnormality which leads to liver abnormality in later life. This is passed on to F1 generation indicating intragenerational inheritance of liver abnormalities and perhaps soma to germline transmission. In this study offspring (F1 generation) have never been exposed to environmental toxicant. F0 immature female somatic cells (e.g. ovaries) and germ cells (e.g. oocytes) were directly exposed to environmental toxicant in early life. TCE exposure caused epigenetic variations in the germline indirectly (red broken arrows) through its effect on somatic liver cells.