Gestational ozone inhalation elicits maternal cardiac dysfunction and transcriptional changes to placental pericytes and endothelial cells

Ozone (O3) is a criteria air pollutant with the most frequent incidence of exceeding air quality standards. Inhalation of O3 is known to cause lung inflammation and consequent systemic health effects, including endothelial dysfunction. Epidemiologic data have shown that gestational exposure to air pollutants correlates with complications of pregnancy, including low birth weight, intrauterine growth deficiency, preeclampsia, and premature birth. Mechanisms underlying how air pollution may facilitate or exacerbate gestational complications remain poorly defined. The current study sought to uncover how gestational O3 exposure impacted maternal cardiovascular function, as well as the development of the placenta. Pregnant mice were exposed to 1PPM O3 or a sham filtered air (FA) exposure for 4 h on gestational day (GD) 10.5, and evaluated for cardiac function via echocardiography on GD18.5. Echocardiography revealed a significant reduction in maternal stroke volume and ejection fraction in maternally exposed dams. To examine the impact of maternal O3 exposure on the maternal-fetal interface, placentae were analyzed by single-cell RNA sequencing analysis. Mid-gestational O3 exposure led to significant differential expression of 4021 transcripts compared with controls, and pericytes displayed the greatest transcriptional modulation. Pathway analysis identified extracellular matrix organization to be significantly altered after the exposure, with the greatest modifications in trophoblasts, pericytes, and endothelial cells. This study provides insights into potential molecular processes during pregnancy that may be altered due to the inhalation of environmental toxicants.