Expression data of sandwich cultured primary rat hepatocytes incubated to piperazine designer drugs

The piperazine derivatives most frequently consumed for recreational purposes are 1-benzylpiperazine (BZP), 1-(3,4-methylenedioxybenzyl)piperazine (MDBP), 1-(3-trifluoromethylphenyl)piperazine (TFMPP), and 1-(4-methoxyphenyl)piperazine (MeOPP). Currently it is unclear whether piperazine designer drugs induce mechanisms of hepatotoxicity and, if so, whether they act by a common mechanism. We performed a gene array study with rat hepatocytes incubated with the four designer drugs for 24 h in order to detail the global programme of gene expression Primary rat hepatocytes were cultured in collagen sandwich and incubated with the piperazine designer drugs. After 24 h, the RNA was extracted and the Affymetrix microarray analysis was performed.