Ethynylestradiol (EE2) effect on global gene expression in primary rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) hepatocytes

To study short term (48h) hepatic transcriptional changes and identify potential modes of action in primary rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) hepatocytes exposed to 0.03, 0.3, 3 and 30nM EE2. The transcriptional gene expression analysis involved a high density (60k) custom designed oligonucleotide salmonid microarray in combination with quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Differently expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained after application of a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey posthoc test. Enrichment analysis was performed based on Gene Ontology (GO) to determine the biological roles of the DEGs. The obtained DEGs were further mapped against mammalian orthologs. The successfully mapped DEGs were further subjected to a gene network analysis based on well-curated mammalian protein -protein interactions, followed by a canonical and toxicity pathway analysis. The pathways and network analysis were performed in order to link DEGs to specific and toxicological/biological functions. Isolated primary rainbow trout hepatocytes were exposed to 0.03-30nM ethynylestradiol for 48h. The cells were sampled and used for gene expression analysis. A total of 4 biological replicates were analyzed for each concentration, including solvent (DMSO) control.