Alterations in gene expression in Caenorhabditis elegans associated with exposure to several classes of toxic industrial chemicals/materials.. Caenorhabditis elegans

Effective toxicological testing of the vast number of new and existing chemicals currently in use will require efficient and cost effective methods. We evaluated the utility of a simple, low cost toxicity testing system employing the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to identify toxicologically relevant changes in gene expression. The objective of this research is to determine genomic and proteomic responses in the model nematode C. elegans to exposures to representatives of several classes of toxic industrial chemicals/materials (TICs/TIMs). A total of 3 chemicals (acrylamide, cadmium chloride, and mercuric chloride) were used in these experiments. Affymetrix GeneChip for C. elegans was used to examine genome-wide responses in the 19,000+ genes of this model organism. Overall design: Mid-vulval L4 worms were exposed to one of four concentrations of acrylamide, cadmium or mercury for 4h and 8h. Exposures were performed in triplicate.