Xenobiotic-induced perturbations of cis-regulatory elements associated with sensitivity to liver tumor promotion

Liver cancer susceptibility varies between strains of experimental animal models due to multiple genetic and epigenetic factors. We used DNase I hypersensitivity mapping and transcriptomic profiling to investigate cis-regulatory element and transcriptional perturbations associated with the early stages of phenobarbital (PB)-mediated liver tumor promotion in susceptible versus resistant mouse strains (B6C3F1 versus C57BL/6). DNase hypersensitivity and gene expression profiling was performed on livers of animals from two mouse strains (C57BL/6 and B6C3F1). For each strain, animals were split into two groups of 5 animals each. One group received phenobarbital treatment through ad libitum access to drinking water for 91 days and the other group served as control.