Tocotrienol Rich Fraction (TRF) Modulates Genes Expression in Oxidative Stress-Induced Caenorhabditis elegans

The study was done to determine the effect of Tocotrienol rich fraction (TRF) on the expression of RNAs in C. elegans under oxidative stress. Apart from its antioxidant properties, tocotrienols are beneficial to health due to its neuroprotective effect, anti-carcinogenic as well as cholesterol-lowering property. It has also been demonstrated that tocotrienols play a role in regulating signal transduction of cell death pathway. However, the molecular mechanism of how tocotrienols modulate the aging pathway is still scarce. To elucidate the molecular mechanism of lifespan extension by this antioxidant, the microarray technology is further used to analyze the changes in gene expression with TRF treatment in the present study. The nematodes were divided into four groups and treated accordingly: (A) control; (B) H2O2 induction (H2O2); (D) TRF treatment pre- and post- H2O2 induction (TRF+H2O2+TRF); and (F) TRF treatment (TRF). Analysis of differentially expressed genes were conducted using unpaired T-test (P-value cut off at 0.05) between two experimental conditions as followed; 1) Group A vs B; 2) Group A vs F; and 3) Group B vs D .