Hepatic transcriptome of rats treated with vehicle or fipronil (3 mg/kg/d per os for 14 days)

Fipronil (CAS #: 120068-37-3), a widely used insecticide, has been described as a thyroid disruptor in rat inducing a marked increase in thyroxine (T4) clearance resulting in a decrease in T4 plasma concentration. These effects seem to require the bioactivation of fipronil via its biotransformation into fipronil sulfone by cytochromes P450 (CYP). Here, we hypothesized that fipronil-induced thyroid disruption may, at least in part, result from the induction of hepatic enzymes involved in the metabolism of thyroid hormones. Thus, we used microarrays to perform a genome-wide analysis of the effects of fipronil on gene expression in rat liver.