Effect of DEHP on piRNA expression in rat testis

To explore the effect of DEHP on piRNA expression in rat testes, we have employed rat piRNA microarray expression profiling as a discovery platform to identify piRNAs with the potential to study the role of DEHP exposure on piRNA expression in rat testes to provide new insight into DEHP-induced male reproductive injury. 6-week Sprague-Dawley (SD) male rats were randomly divided into control group and DEHP-treated group (1000 mg/kg/d) after 1 week of acclimatization. Rats in control and DEHP groups were orally administrated with 1000 mg/kg/d DEHP (dissolved in corn oil, gavage volume of 0.2 mL/10 g body weight) and corn oil for 28 consecutive days respectively. Three testes were collected from three rats in each group for RNA extraction and subsequent piRNA detection.