Gene expression profiling under low dose and short incubation time of cadmium in primary rat hepatocyte in culture

The study was performed using primary rat hepatocyte in culture from 4 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats to investigate the changes in gene expression under low dose (4μM) and short exposure (3hrs) of cadmium chloride. By comparing the gene expression profiles of control and cadmium-treated cells, the most dramatic and significant changes were for those genes associated with transcriptional regulation, antioxidant response and control of protein integrity. Changes in other genes involved in cellular physiological responses such as inflammation, growth and apoptosis were also observed. Results were further confirmed by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Keywords: early protective responses Primary hepatocytes from four rats were isolated using the collagenase-hyaluronidase perfusion and digestion method. The cells of greater than 85% viability were used in this study. The cells were plated at 90% confluency on culture dishes coated with collagen and maintained in Waymouth's medium containing BSA for 4hrs prior to an overnight incubation with BSA free Waymouth's medium. Control samples and cadmium-treated samples from individual rats were hybridized to RAE 230A arrays (n=4 and 8 microarrays); data were generated and analyzed.