Expression data from PBDE treated rats at PND22 and Week 13

Liver gene transcripts patterns were used to characterize toxicity from exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), flame retardant components. In this study, Wistar Han dams were exposed by gavage to the PBDE mixture (DE71) starting at gestation day 6 (GD 6) and continuing to weaning on postnatal day 21 (PND 21). Offspring from the dams began PBDE direct dosing on PND 12 and were dosed daily through PND 21. After weaning, they were dosed 5 days per week for another 13 weeks. Liver samples were collected at PND 22 and week 13 for liver gene expression analysis and interrogated with the Affymetrix Rat Genome 230 2.0 Array. PBDE treatment induced 1,066 liver gene transcript changes in females and 1,200 transcriptional changes in males at PND 22 (false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.01), but only 263 liver transcriptional changes at 13 weeks in male rats (FDR <0.05). No significant differences in dose response were found between male and female pups. There were a total of 6 groups and 5x replication for each group, for 30 total samples that were analyzed. The groups were (1) pup-male-CTL, (2) pup-female-CTL, (3) pup-male-PBDE, (4) pup-female-PBDE, (5) rat-male-CTL, (6) rat-male-PBDE. We generated the following pairwise comparisons using R/maanova: malePups(PBDE vs CTL), femalePups(PBDE vs CTL), maleRats(PBDE vs CTL), CTLpups(male vs female), PBDEpups(male vs female). We also performed ANOVA test for SEX-by-DOSE (pups) and AGE-by-DOSE (males). For pups, genes with an FDR≤1% were selected; for rats, genes with FDR < 5% were selected.