Genome wide responses of murine lungs to dietary α-tocopherol

Abstract

α-tocopherol (α-T) may affect biological processes by modulating mRNA concentrations. This study screened the responses of ∼15,000 lung mRNAs to dietary α-T in mice. The lung was chosen as the target organ because it is subjected to cyclical variations in oxidant and inflammatory stressors and α-T has been implicated in their modulations. The analysis identified ∼400 mRNAs sensitive to α-T status of lungs determined by dietary α-T. The female lung transcriptome appears to be more sensitive to the α-T status than that of the male lungs. Here, we focus on the induction of 13 cytoskeleton genes by dietary α-T because they were similarly induced in the male and the female lungs. Their inductions were confirmed by quantitative-real-time-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Immunohistochemical analyses of three of the encoded proteins suggest that they are expressed in lung vasculature and alveolar regions. The data suggest that the lung α-T status may modulate cytoarchitecture of lungs.

• Tocopherol
• vitamin E
• smooth muscle
• oligonucleotide-arrays
• microarrays
• cytoskeleton