Gene expression profiling of rat livers after continuous whole-body exposure to low-dose rate of gamma rays

Abstract

Purpose: To study gene expression modulation in response to continuous whole-body exposure to low-dose-rate gamma radiation and improve our understanding of the mechanism of this impact at the molecular basis.

Materials and methods: cDNA microarray method with complete pooling of samples was used to study expression changes in the transcriptome profile of livers from rats treated with prolonged low-dose-rate ionizing radiation (IR) relative to that of sham-irradiated rats.

Results: Of the 209 genes that were two-fold-up or down-regulated, 143 were known genes of which 27 were found in previous literatures to be modulated by IR. Remarkably, there were a significant number of differentially expressed genes involved in hepatic lipid metabolism.

Conclusion: This study showed changes in transcriptome profile of livers from low-dose irradiated rats when compared with that of sham-irradiated ones. This study will be useful for studying the metabolic changes of human exposed for long term to cosmic ray such as in space and in polar regions.

Keywords:

• Low-dose gamma radiation
• transcriptome profiling
• complete pooling
• lipid metabolism

Disclosure statement

The authors have no financial conflicts of interest.

Ethical statement

All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financially supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), and grant funded by the Korea Government (MSIP) [no: NRF-2015R1A2A2A01004733] and by Golden Seed Project [no: 213008-05-2-SB910], Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.

Notes on contributors

Kim Ngan Tran

Kim Ngan Tran was a Master student at Department of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Chonnam National University.

Jong-il Choi

Jong-il Choi is Professor at Department of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Chonnam National University.