Alterations in MAPK Signaling in Alveolar Bronchiolar Carcinomas from B6C3F1/N Mice Exposed to Antimony Trioxide by Inhalation for 2 Years

To identify transcripts differentially expressed between control samples and spontaneous tumors, or control samples and antimony treated lung tumors, we collected RNA from male and female B6C3F1 mice from a 2-year inhalation NTP bioassay exposed to 0 to 30 mg/m3 antimony trioxide. These samples were interrogated with the Affymetrix Mouse Genome 430 2.0 GeneChip Array. A total of 9941 gene transcripts were differentially expressed between control samples and spontaneous tumors, and 12441 gene transcripts were differentially expressed between control samples and treated antimony tumors (false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05). There were 3 groups and 6x replication for each group, for 18 total samples. The groups were (1) vehicle control, (2) spontaneous tumors, (3) tumors present with antimony treatment. We compared vehicle control vs spontaneous tumor and control vs treated tumor using ORIOGEN software. The permutation based p-values for each test were significant for FDR≤5%.