Expression data from brain stem of rats with and without rotenone treatment

We investigated an subacute study in male Wistar rats, treated daily with 400 ppm rotenone for 1, 3, or 14 consecutive days, followed by necropsy 24h after the last application. Rotenone is a strong mitochondrial respiratory chain complex I inhibitor. Inhibitors of complex I are suggested to exert anti-tumor activity of those tumors relying on oxidative metabolism and are therefore of interest in oncology research. Nevertheless, the safety profile of these inhibitors needs to be rigorously assessed. Rotenone has shown anti-carcinogenic activity in several studies. In this context we used rotenone in our study as tool compound with the aim to identify suitable biomarker candidates and enhance mechanistic insights into the biologic and cellular effects of complex I inhibitors at the organ level after in vivo treatment. Various parameters, including hematology, clinical chemistry and histopathology, major blood cell population phenotyping using FACS and enzymatic activity assays were measured and/or evaluated. Moreover gene expression profiles were determined to investigate pathways and functions affected by rotenone at the molecular level. As organs, liver, heart and brain stem were chosen due to the high metabolic activity, the high energy demand and due to the known neurotoxic effect of rotenone, respectively. The strongest rotenone-induced effects on gene expression were observed in the liver (1444 deregulated genes) compared to heart (650 deregulated genes) and brain stem (52 deregulated genes). These findings, together with the histopathological results, show that liver is a target organ of rotenone. Male RccHan Wistar rats at the age of 7-8 weeks were randomly assigned to the vehicle or treatment group (n=5). Then 0 or 400 ppm rotenone (Sigma Aldrich, Steinheim, Germany) was administered in the diet for 1, 3 or 14 consecutive days, followed by necropsy. Blood was collected for clinical chemistry and hematology and several organs were removed, weighted, aliquoted, fixed in formalin for histopathological examinations or flash frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at −80 °C for RNA isolation.