Transcriptomic characterization of human primary prostate stromal cells upon exposure to chemotherapy and treatment by a natural flavonoid apigenin

Senescent cells accumulate in a wide variety of solid tissues of mammalian species with advancing age, functionally promoting chronic inflammation and causing age-related diseases. Apigenin is one of the most abundant flavonoids in fruits and vegetables of human diet with several demonstrated health benefits. The aim of the present study is to investigate the influence of apigenin, the natural phytochemical agent with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties reported by former studies, on human primary stromal cells induced senescent in vitro by a genotoxic agent frequently used in clinical oncology. We mainly focused on the capacity of apigenin in controlling the expression of a full spectrum senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), one of the major hallmarks of senescent cells. High-throughput RNA-seq examination of genome-wide transcriptional alterations of primary normal human prostate stromal cells (PSC27) that underwent senescence-inducing treatment by the chemotherapeutic agent bleomycin. The sequence reads that passed quality filters were analyzed at the transcript isoform level with two methods: Burrows–Wheeler Aligner (BWA) followed by ANOVA (ANOVA) and TopHat followed by Cufflinks.