Dissecting modes of action of non-genotoxic carcinogens in primary mouse hepatocytes.

Under REACH, the European Community Regulation on chemicals, the testing strategy for carcinogenicity is generally based on in vitro and in vivo genotoxicity assays. Given that non-genotoxic carcinogens are negative for genotoxicity, this class of carcinogens will not be detected. Therefore, alternative test are urgently needed. Non-genotoxic carcinogens, however, act through different modes of action, which complicates the development of such an assay. The aim of this study was to investigate whether gene expression profiling in primary mouse hepatocytes can be used to distinguish different modes of action of non-genotoxic carcinogens. Primary mouse hepatocytes were exposed to 16 non-genotoxic carcinogens with diverse modes of action. Upon profiling, pathway analysis was performed to obtain insight into the biological relevance of the observed changes in gene expression. To recognize similarities in mode of action at the transcriptomic level, both a supervised and an unsupervised comparison approach was applied.