Table 1.

Parental exposure-induced molecular changes in offspring's mammary tissues.

Animal model	Ancestral experience	Molecular alteration		References
INTERGENERATIONAL
Maternal
Sprague–Dawley rats	High-fat diet	Protein levels	MAPK and ER-alpha	de Assis et al. (21)
Wistar rats	Low-protein diet	Protein levels	Insulin receptor (IR) and insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R)	Fernandez-Twinn et al. (34)
Wistar rats	Low-protein diet	Gene expression	e.g., Igf-1r, Sp1, Jak2, Cdkn1a, Cdkn1b, mmp9, Serpin1, Nfkb1, Bax, and Nme1	Fernandez-Twinn et al. (36)
		Protein levels	IGF-1R, SP1, and mTOR
Paternal
C57BL/6 mice	Obesity-inducing diet	microRNAs	e.g., miR-296-5p, miR-874, and miR-1896	Fontelles et al. (6)
		Protein levels	MAPK, HIF-1A and downstream target, and VEGF-A
Sprague–Dawley rats	Corn oil- and lard-based high-fat diet	microRNAs	e.g., miR-1897-5p, miR-219-1-3p, and miR-376a	Fontelles et al. (7)
		Protein levels	e.g., TGFβ, AKT, mTOR, and JNK
C57BL/6 mice	Low-protein diet	DNA methylation	e.g., Tuba3a, Rhox13, and Gnas	da Cruz et al. (40)
		sncRNAs	e.g., miR-28a, miR-200c, miR-451a, tRNA-Gly-CCC, and tRNA-Val-TAC
		Protein levels	CAB39, AMPK, mTOR, and its downstream targets S6 kinase and eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF) 4E-binding protein
C57BL/6 mice	DDT	Protein levels	AMPK, mTOR, and its downstream targets S6K kinase and eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF) 4E-binding protein	da Cruz et al. (41)
TRANSGENERATIONAL
Sprague–Dawley rats	High-fat or ethinyl-estradiol (EE2)-supplemented diet	Gene expression	Dnmt1 and Dnmt3a/b	de Assis et al. (4)
		DNA methylation	e.g., Pax6, Runx3, Foxe3, Gata4, and Vgf
C57BL/6NTac mice	N-6 PUFA high-fat diet	Gene expression	e.g., Akt2, Egr3, Hes1, Id4, Jam3, Pcdhga8, Slc26a10, Tbx2, Igfbp6, Oas3a, p21, and Slfn1	Nguyen et al. (42)