Project description:Primary hepatocytes have been widely explored as cell sources for the study of in vitro drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK). Aiming toward establishing an in vitro drug screening method, the current study illustrated a comprehensive increase in the DMPK-related gene expression of nanopillar (NP)-cultured 3D-spheroid. To examine the expressional changes in DMPK-related genes under four different conditions, namely, NP-, sandwich (SW)-, monolayer (ML)-cultured rat hepatocytes, and freshly isolated hepatocytes, genome-wide gene-expression analysis using a DNA microarray was performed. Among the DMPK-related genes, cytochrome P450, UDP-glucuronosyltransferase, and transporter genes were focused on. Principal component analysis showed that the global gene expression profile in sample from NP culture is closer to that from freshly isolated hepatocytes than that from SW culture. The expressions of almost all Cyp 1 to 3 and Ugt genes of NP-cultured 3-D spheroid were higher than those of ML and SW. The expression of Abcc2 gene whose translation product has a critical role in excretion of metabolized bile acids in hepatocyte to bile canaliculi was three times higher in NP than in ML. From these results, 3-D spheroid formed by the NP culture was suggested to possess higher ability of metabolism and excretion than conventional 2-D monolayer culture. The NP culture has a potential as an alternative culturing technique for evaluating metabolism and toxicity toward the development of new drugs. Gene expression in rat hepatocyte was measured under four different conditions, namely, Nanopillar (NP)-, sandwich (SW)-, monolayer (ML)-cultured rat hepatocytes, and freshly isolated hepatocytes. Three independent experiments were performed at 95 hours of post-seeding.
Project description:Living organisms are intricate systems with dynamic internal processes. Their RNA, protein, and metabolite levels fluctuate in response to variations in health and environmental conditions. Among these, RNA expression is particularly accessible for comprehensive analysis, thanks to the evolution of high throughput sequencing technologies in recent years. This progress has enabled researchers to identify unique RNA patterns associated with various diseases, as well as to develop predictive and prognostic biomarkers for therapy response. Such cross-sectional studies allow for the identification of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between groups, but they have limitations. Specifically, they often fail to capture the temporal changes in gene expression following individual perturbations and may lead to significant false discoveries due to inherent noise in RNA sequencing sample preparation and data collection. To address these challenges, our study hypothesized that frequent, longitudinal RNA sequencing (RNAseq) analysis of blood samples could offer a more profound understanding of the temporal dynamics of gene expression in response to drug interventions, while also enhancing the accuracy of identifying genes influenced by these drugs. In this research, we conducted RNAseq on 829 blood samples collected from 84 Sprague-Dawley lab rats. Excluding the control group, each rat was administered one of four different compounds known for liver toxicity: tetracycline, isoniazid, valproate, and carbon tetrachloride. We developed specialized bioinformatics tools to pinpoint genes that exhibit temporal variation in response to these treatments.