Hepatic transcriptomic alterations for 1,2-bis(tribromophenoxy)ethane (BTBPE) (Firemaster 680) after 5-day exposure in rats

To identify liver transcripts differentially expressed due to treatment with 1,2-bis(tribromophenoxy)ethane (BTBPE) (Firemaster 680), we collected RNA from male Harlan Sprague Dawley rats exposed to 0, 0.07, 0.69, 6.88, 68 or 680 mg/kg BTBPE, 5 days after exposure for animals 7 weeks of age. These samples were interrogated with the Affymetrix Rat Genome 230 2.0 GeneChip array. A total of 0,0,0,0, and 0 gene transcripts were differentially expressed due to BTBPE treatment after exposure to 0.07, 0.69, 6.88, 68 or 680 mg/kg BTBPE (false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05). There were 6 groups and 6x replications for each group, except there were 5 samples for the 68 mg/kg group, for a total of 35 samples. The groups were (1) BTBPE-0mg/kg, (2) BTBPE-0.07mg/kg, (3) BTBPE-0.69mg/kg, BTBPE-6.88mg/kg, BTBPE-68mg/kg, and BTBPE-680mg/kg. We compared vehicle control (0mg/kg) vs dose using the R/maanova package. The differentially expressed transcripts were identified based on a statistical significance threshold of FDR<5%.