• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• 제2권4호
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• pp.229-235
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• 2006

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a major component of urban air pollution. It is documented that low exposure levels of VOCs induce alterations in immune reactivity resulting in a subsequent higher risk for the development of allergic reactivity and asthma. Despite these facts, there are few reports on the affected primary target and the underlying effective causal mechanisms. So in this study, to better understand the risk of BTX (benzene, toluene and o-xylene) which are the major VOCs and to identify novel biomarkers on immune response to these VOCs exposure in human T lymphocytes, we performed the toxicogenomic study by analyzing of gene expression profiles using 35 k human oligo-microarray. BTX generated specific gene expression patterns in Jurkat cell line. By clustering analysis, we identified some genes as potential markers on immuno-modulating effects of BTX. Four genes of these, HLA-DOA, ITGB2, HMGA2 and 5TAT4 were the most significantly affected by BTX exposure. Thus, this study suggests that these differentially expressed immune genes may play an important role in the pathogenesis on BTX exposure and have significant potential as novel biomarkers of exposure, susceptibility and response to BTC.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• 제5권2호
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• pp.99-107
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• 2009

Naphthalene is bicyclic aromatic compound that is widely used in various domestic and commercial applications including lavatory scent disks, soil fumigants and moth balls. Exposure to naphthalene results in the development of bronchiolar damage, cataracts and hemolytic anemia in humans and laboratory animals. However, little information is available regarding the mechanism of naphthalene toxicity. We investigated gene expression profiles and potential signature genes in human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells and human promyelocytic leukemia HL-60 cells after 3 h and 48 h incubation with the IC$_{20}$ and IC$_{50}$ of naphthalene by using 44 k agilent whole human genome oligomicroarray and operon human whole 35 k oligomicroarray, respectively. We identified 616 up-regulated genes and 2,088 down-regulated genes changed by more than 2-fold by naphthalene in HepG2 cells. And in HL-60, we identified 138 up-regulated genes and 182 down-regulated genes changed by more than 2-fold. This study identified several interesting targets and functions in relation to naphthalene-induced toxicity through a gene ontology analysis method. Apoptosis and cell cycle related genes are more commonly expressed than other functional genes in both cell lines. In summary, the use of in vitro models with global expression profiling emerges as a relevant approach toward the identification of biomarkers associated with toxicity after exposure to a variety of environmental toxicants.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• 제4권4호
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• pp.267-277
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• 2008

Benzene and ethylbenzene (BE), the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are common constituents of cleaning and degreasing agents, paints, pesticides, personal care products, gasoline and solvents. VOCs are evaporated at room temperature and most of them exhibit acute and chronic toxicity to human. Chronic exposure of benzene is responsible for myeloid leukemia and also ethylbenzene is also recognized as a possible carcinogen. To evaluate the BE effect on human, whole human genome 35 K oligonucleotide microarray were screened for the identification of the differential expression profiling. We identified 280 up-regulated and 201 down-regulated genes changed by more than 1.5 fold by BE exposure. Functional analysis was carried out by using DAVID bioinformatics software. Clustering of these differentially expressed genes were associated with immune response, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, toll-like signaling pathway, small cell lung cancer, immune response, apoptosis, p53 signaling pathway and MAPKKK cascade possibly constituting alternative or subordinate pathways of hematotoxicity and immune toxicity. Gene ontology analysis methods including biological process, cellular components, molecular function and KEGG pathway thus provide a fundamental basis of the molecular pathways through BEs exposure in human lymphoma cells. This may provides a valuable information to do further analysis to explore the mechanism of BE induced hematotoxicity.