Project description:Zinc is both an essential and potentially toxic metal. It is widely believed that oral zinc supplementation can reduce the effects of the common cold; however, there is strong clinical evidence that intranasal (IN) zinc gluconate (ZG) gel treatment for this purpose causes anosmia, or the loss of the sense of smell, in humans. Using the rat olfactory neuron cell line, Odora, we investigated the molecular mechanism by which zinc exposure exerts its toxic effects on olfactory neurons. Following treatment of Odora cells with 100 and 200 μM ZG for 0-24 h, RNA-seq and in silico analyses revealed up-regulation of pathways associated with zinc metal response, oxidative stress, and ATP production. We observed that Odora cells recovered from zinc-induced oxidative stress, but ATP depletion persisted with longer exposure to ZG. ZG exposure increased levels of NLRP3 and IL-1β protein levels in a time-dependent manner, suggesting that zinc exposure may cause an inflammasome-mediated cell death, pyroptosis, in olfactory neurons.
Project description:Learn about the transcriptome profiling of zona glomerulosa (ZG), zona fasciculata (ZF) and aldosterone-producing adenomas (APA) in human adrenals 21 pairs of zona fasciculata (ZF) and zona glomerulosa (ZG), and 14 paired aldosterone-producing adenomas (APAs) from 14 Conn’s syndrome patients and 7 phaeochromocytoma patients were assayed on the Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array. Laser capture microdissection was used to acquire samples of ZF, ZG and APA as previously described (Azizan EA, et al. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2012;97:E819-E829). For differentiation of ZG from ZF, sections were stained with cresyl violet using the LCM Staining Kit (AM1935, Ambion, USA). Data processing and analysis was performed using AffymetrixGeneChip Command Console Software and PartekGenomicSuite 6.5 (Partek Inc., St. Louis, MO). Gene expressions were portrayed as the summarized log-signal of the Robust Multichip Average (RMA) with quantilenormalisation and median polish for probe set summarisation. Validation by qPCR was performed on genes >10 fold up-regulated in zona glomerulosa (compared to zona fasciculata) and >10 fold up-regulated in aldosterone-producing adenomas (compared to zona glomerulosa).
