Transcriptomic alterations in HEK293 cells under short-term and long-term exposure to citrinin

Mycotoxin citrinin (CTN) is a secondary metabolite of fungi, becoming a contaminant widely found in foods, feeds, and fermented health supplements. CTN is known to disrupt microtubule and chromosome arrangement at high dose (50 - 150 μM), but the toxicological effect of CTN long-term exposure has not been clearly studied. To investigate the molecular mechanisms of genotoxic, clastogenic, and carcinogenic effects of CTN, RNA-seq was performed on HEK293 cells exposed to chronic 20 μM CTN treatment (3 days for short-term and 30 days for long-term). The transcriptomic profile may reveal some underlying mechanisms regarding chronic carcinogenic potential of CTN, providing information for risk assessment of CTN-contaminated grains and its commercial food products. RNA-seq analysis was performed for CTN-exposed samples. HEK293 cells were treated with 20 μM CTN for 3 days (short-term, ST) and 30 days (long-term, LT). Colony formation assay was performed at day 30 and the colonies formed were picked up for RNA-seq analysis. HEK293 cells treated with vehicle for 30 days were served as control (CTRL). Biological duplicates were performed for each sample.