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Abstract
Styrene is an important industrial chemical that is extensively used in the production of resins, rubbers and fiberglass-reinforced plastics. Exposing male rats to high doses of styrene may produce sperm abnormalities or infertility. To determine the mechanism underlying styrene-mediated toxicity in male reproductive organs, a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technology was employed using annealing control primers (ACPs) to identify the differentially expressed genes following styrene treatment in isolated testis of male rats. By using 120 ACPs, a total of 6 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) of genes were differentially expressed in styrene-treated rats, as compared to untreated, which were cloned and sequenced. Of the genes analyzed, 5 genes (testis-specific expressed gene 101, protein kinase C, H+-ATPase isoform 2, peroxiredoxin 1, and aquaporin 9) were inducible and one gene expression (clusterin) was significantly suppressed by styrene. Regulation of each gene by styrene was confirmed by RT-PCR. It was shown that styrene decreased clusterin expression in a concentration-dependent manner and these effects occurred mainly in testis. Taken together, these results indicate that repression of clusterin gene expression by styrene may play an important role in styrene-mediated toxicities.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This publication was made possible by a grant of the Korea Health 21 R&D Project, Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (03-PJ1-PG1-CH04-0003).