Gene expression profiling of HOS (human osteosarcoma) cells exposed to fluoride

Though fluoride is considered an essential trace element, chronic exposure to fluoride is known to cause toxic effects. Chronic exposure of high concentration of fluoride may leads to fluorosis. To understand the molecular mechanism of fluoride induced toxicity gene expression profiling was performed on osteosarcoma cells (HOS). Cells were exposed to sub-lethal concentration of fluoride (8 ppm) for 30 days. Our result demonstrates that fluoride alters multiple biological pathways including bone development, osteoblast differentiation and apoptotic pathways. HOS cells grown in MEM were treated with fluoride and total RNA was isolated from cells after 30 days exposure. Three replicates per group were used for the experiment.