Gene expression profiles related with TCDD-induced hepatotoxicity

Abstract

Toxicological studies have an object of detecting adverse effects of a chemical on an organism based on observed toxicity marker (i.e., serum biochemical markers and chemical-specific gene expression) or phenotypic outcome. To date, most toxicogenomic studies concentrated on hepatic toxicity. cDNA microarray analysis enable discrimination of the responses in animals exposed to different classes of hepatotoxicants. In an effort to further characterize the mechanisms of 2, 3, 7, 8,-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD or dioxin)-mediated toxicity, comprehensive temporal-responsive microarray analyses were performed on hepatic tissue from Sprague-Dawley rats treated with TCDD. Hepatic gene expression profiles were monitored using custom DNA chip containing 490 cDNA clones related with toxicology. Gene expression analysis identified 26 features which exhibited a significant change. In this study, we observed that the genes related with oxidative stress in rats exposed to Dioxin, such as CYPIIA3 and glutathione S-transferase, were up-regulated at 24hr after exposure. In this study, we carried out to discover novel evidence for previously unknown gene expression patterns related to mechanism of hepatic toxicity in rats exposed to dioxin, and to elucidate the effects of dioxin on the gene expression after exposure to dioxin.