Adverse Health Effects of Cylindrospermopsin in Laboratory Animal (Mouse) Studies in Multi-day Study using Affymetrix Array

The goal of this project was to determine gene expression changes in the liver at different times post treatment with the common freshwater cyanobacterial toxin, cylindrospermopsin (CYN). The liver is generally considered to be the primary target of this toxin and all the data has been derived from livers of exposed animals as well as concurrent controls. Preliminary gene expression effects have been reported (Chernoff et al., 2010) and the current data extend the time course from 1 hour post exposure to 1-day post cessation of a 5-day period dosing period. Gene expression changes were determined in the livers of pregnant mice exposed to toxic levels of the cyanobacterial toxin, cylindrospermopsin. Animals were exposed to a dose of CYN that elicited significant hepatic toxicity. This multi-day study used tissue obtained 1-day, 2-days, 4-days, and 5-days after the initiation of a 5 consecutive day dosing regimen. Toxicity data including gross observations, necropsy findings and clinical chemistry endpoints indicative of hepatic, renal and homeostasis functions were collected at the same time liver tissues for gene expression analysis were obtained. Gene expression changes were analyzed on the GeneChip® Mouse Genome 430 2.0 Array.