Hepatic miRNA profiles and thyroid hormone homeostasis in rats exposed to dietary potassium perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) [mRNA]. Rattus norvegicus

Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) has been widely used in a variety of industrial and commercial applications as a surfactant and stain repellent. PFOS causes liver damage (including liver tumors) in experimental animals, primarily via interaction with PPARa and CAR/PXR. We investigated the involvement of microRNAs (miRNAs) in PFOS-induced hepatotoxicity, and mechanisms involved in abnormal TH homeostasis, in the livers of adult male rats exposed in feed to 50 mg PFOS/kg diet for 28 days. PFOS-treated rats exhibited expected histopathological and clinical chemistry changes. Global gene expression changes were consistent with the involvement of PPARα and CAR/PXR in PFOS-induced effects. Thirty-eight miRNAs were significantly altered. Three members of the miR-200 family were the most increased, while miR-122 and miR-21 were the most decreased, in PFOS-treated relative to control rats. Expression of the miR-23b/27b/24 cluster also decreased in PFOS-treated animals. Pathway analysis of miRNAs and associated gene expression changes demonstrated enrichment of transcripts involved in epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is a primary process involved in tumor cell motility and cancer metastasis. Liver expression analysis revealed transcripts that may mediate PFOS effects on thyroid hormone (TH) homeostasis including: activation of the CAR/PXR pathway, phase II/III enzymes, and deiodinase. These changes are consistent with low serum TH due to enhanced metabolic clearance of TH. However, most TH hepatic target genes were not altered in a manner consistent with reduced TH signalling; suggesting that PFOS exposure did not induce functional hypothyroidism. Collectively, PFOS-induced miRNA perturbations were strongly associated with EMT suggesting an important role for miRNAs in PFOS-induced hepatotoxicity. The work also provides novel insights into the effects of PFOS on TH homeostasis. Overall design: Four RNA samples from control and four from PFOS treated rats were labelled with Cyanine 5-CTP (Cy5) using Low Input Quick Amp Labelling kits (Agilent Technologies Inc.) following the manufacturer’s instruction. Universal rat reference total RNA (Agilent Technologies Inc.) was labelled with Cyanine 3-CTP (Cy3). Cy5-sample cRNA and Cy3-reference cRNA were hybridized to Agilent G4853A SurePrint G3 Rat GE 8 X 60K microarrays (Agilent Technologies Inc.) at 65°C overnight with Agilent hybridization solution. Slides were washed and scanned on an Agilent G2505B microarray scanner at 5 μm resolution, and the data were acquired with Agilent Feature Extraction software version 10.7.3.1. Microarray data quality was confirmed using Agilent Feature Extraction quality control metrics and in-house metrics (boxplots, cluster analyses, and MA plots to identify poor quality outlier arrays). All samples passed the quality control tests and were used for subsequent analyses.