Transcriptomic alterations in ferroptotic murine embryonic fibroblasts

Alterations of metabolic and biological processes occur in ferroptotic cells. We analyzed transcriptional responses of murine embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) exposed to a ferroptosis inducer erastin. We found that a set of genes related to protection against oxidative stress was induced upon ferroptosis and Bach1 promoted ferroptosis by repressing a set of these genes involved in synthesis of glutathione or metabolism of intracellular labile iron. Our findings suggests that ferroptosis is programmed at transcriptional level and Bach1 works as a controller in setting a threshold of ferroptosis. Total RNA was extracted from MEF after 24-hour treatment with DMSO or 3 µM Erastin. This experiment was triplicated, and the resulting six samples were applied to RNA-sequencing.