Project description:Hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls are the metabolites produced from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) by drug-metabolizing enzyme cytochrome P450 1A1. These compounds are bound to transthyretin, a major plasma thyroid hormone-binding protein in amphibian tadpoles. The compounds-transthyretin complexes are transferred into the brain across the blood brain barrier in mammals. Thus these compounds are suspected to disrupt neural development in brain. We studied about the effects of hydroxylated PCBs on the thyroid system in brain using metamorphosing tadpoles of African clawed toad, Xenopus laevis. The metamorphosis assay revealed that these compounds had inhibitory effects on the thyroid hormone-induced metamorphosis. This in vivo assay was a powerful tool to detect thyroid-disrupting activities, because we were not able to detect the inhibitory effects of these compounds using thyroid hormone-responsive reporter gene assay in a cultured Xenopus cell line. A genome-wide gene expression analysis in brain following short-term exposure to these compounds demonstrated that the delay of metamorphosis and the morphological thyroid-disrupting changes could be caused partially by disruption of the thyroid hormone-induced gene expression by hydroxylated PCBs. Furthermore, we associated functional ontology terms with the transcripts whose expression were altered by thyroid hormone alone, or thyroid hormone and hydroxylated PCBs. We suggested that these approachs using a technique of bioinformatics revealed molecular mechanism of thyroid-disrupting activities in vivo. Thyroid hormones induce amphibian metamorphosis and alter a lot of thyroid hormone-responsive gene expression. We studied about the effects of hydroxylated PCBs on TH-induced gene expression. Premetamorphic tadpoles were treated with 500 nM hydroxylated PCBs in the presence of 1 nM thyroid hormone for 4 days. After exposure period total RNA was extracted from brain. Study included at least three replicate of each treatment.
Project description:Hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls are the metabolites produced from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) by drug-metabolizing enzyme cytochrome P450 1A1. These compounds are bound to transthyretin, a major plasma thyroid hormone-binding protein in amphibian tadpoles. The compounds-transthyretin complexes are transferred into the brain across the blood brain barrier in mammals. Thus these compounds are suspected to disrupt neural development in brain. We studied about the effects of hydroxylated PCBs on the thyroid system in brain using metamorphosing tadpoles of African clawed toad, Xenopus laevis. The metamorphosis assay revealed that these compounds had inhibitory effects on the thyroid hormone-induced metamorphosis. This in vivo assay was a powerful tool to detect thyroid-disrupting activities, because we were not able to detect the inhibitory effects of these compounds using thyroid hormone-responsive reporter gene assay in a cultured Xenopus cell line. A genome-wide gene expression analysis in brain following short-term exposure to these compounds demonstrated that the delay of metamorphosis and the morphological thyroid-disrupting changes could be caused partially by disruption of the thyroid hormone-induced gene expression by hydroxylated PCBs. Furthermore, we associated functional ontology terms with the transcripts whose expression were altered by thyroid hormone alone, or thyroid hormone and hydroxylated PCBs. We suggested that these approachs using a technique of bioinformatics revealed molecular mechanism of thyroid-disrupting activities in vivo.
Project description:Thyroid hormones (TH), thyroxine (T4) and 3, 5, 3’-triiodothyronine (T3), play crucial roles in regulation of growth, development and metabolism in vertebrates and are targets for endocrine disruptive agents. Perturbations in TH action can contribute to the development of disease states and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is developing a high throughput screen using TH-dependent metamorphosis of the Xenopus laevis tadpole as an assay platform. Currently this methodology relies on external morphological endpoints and changes in central thyroid axis parameters. However, exposure-related changes in gene expression in TH-sensitive tissue types that occur over shorter time frames have the potential to augment this screen. Using a combination of cDNA array and real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR) analyses, this study identifies molecular markers in tissues peripheral to the central thyroid axis. We examine the hindlimb and tail of tadpoles up to 96 hours of continuous exposure to T3, T4, methimazole, propylthiouracil, or perchlorate. Several novel biomarker candidates are indicated that include transcripts encoding importin, RNA helicase II/Gu, and defender against death protein, DAD1. In combination with previously-identified biomarker candidates, these transcripts will greatly augment the predictive and diagnostic power of the Xenopus metamorphosis assay for perturbation of TH action. Keywords: time course
Project description:Induction of Xenopus laevis larvae metamorphosis is dependent on exposure to TH. Metamorphosis involves the regression, growth or remodeling of almost all the tissues in the animals body. Metamorphosis in frogs is induced by thyroid hormone. Each organ system has a unique morphological and genetic program that it follows while undergoing metamorphosis involving both the upregulation and downregulation of genes. In this array we examined the change in gene expression in the tail of larvae undergoing precocious metamorphosis following induction with thyroid hormone.
Project description:Induction of Xenopus laevis larvae metamorphosis is dependent on exposure to TH. Metamorphosis involves the regression, growth or remodeling of almost all the tissues in the animals body. Metamorphosis in frogs is induced by thyroid hormone. Each organ system has a unique morphological and genetic program that it follows while undergoing metamorphosis involving both the upregulation and downregulation of genes. In this array we examined the change in gene expression in the tail of larvae undergoing precocious metamorphosis following induction with thyroid hormone. Whole stage 54 xenopus larvae were exposed to either vehicle for 48 hours or 20 nM T3 for 6 or 48 hours. Total RNA was then purified from tail tissue and the samples were examined by hybridization to the Affymetrix Xenopus array. Developmental stage 51-54 Xenopus larvae were selected because these stages do not express high levels of endogenous T3 but are still capable of morphologically responding to exposure.
Project description:Thyroid hormones (TH), thyroxine (T4) and 3, 5, 3’-triiodothyronine (T3), play crucial roles in regulation of growth, development and metabolism in vertebrates and their action are targets for endocrine disruptive agents. Perturbations in TH action can contribute to the development of disease states and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is developing a high throughput screen using TH-dependent amphibian metamorphosis as an assay platform. Currently this methodology relies on external morphological endpoints and changes in central thyroid axis parameters. However, exposure-related changes in gene expression in TH-sensitive tissue types that occur over shorter time frames have the potential to augment this screen. This study aims to characterize and identify molecular markers in the tadpole brain. Using a combination of cDNA array analysis and real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR), we examine the brain of tadpoles following 96 hours of continuous exposure to T3, T4, methimazole, propylthiouracil, or perchlorate. This tissue was more sensitive to T4 rather than T3, even when differences in biological activity were taken into account. This implies that a simple conversion of T4 to T3 cannot fully account for T4 effects on the brain and suggests distinctive mechanisms of action for the two THs. While the brain shows gene expression alterations for methimazole and propylthiouracil, the environmental contaminant, perchlorate, had the greatest effect on the levels of mRNAs encoding proteins important in neural development and function. Our data identify gene expression profiles that can serve as exposure indicators of these chemicals. Keywords: dose response
Project description:Thyroid hormones (TH), thyroxine (T4) and 3, 5, 3’-triiodothyronine (T3), play crucial roles in regulation of growth, development and metabolism in vertebrates and their action are targets for endocrine disruptive agents. Perturbations in TH action can contribute to the development of disease states and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is developing a high throughput screen using TH-dependent amphibian metamorphosis as an assay platform. Currently this methodology relies on external morphological endpoints and changes in central thyroid axis parameters. However, exposure-related changes in gene expression in TH-sensitive tissue types that occur over shorter time frames have the potential to augment this screen. This study aims to characterize and identify molecular markers in the tadpole brain. Using a combination of cDNA array analysis and real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR), we examine the brain of tadpoles following 96 hours of continuous exposure to T3, T4, methimazole, propylthiouracil, or perchlorate. This tissue was more sensitive to T4 rather than T3, even when differences in biological activity were taken into account. This implies that a simple conversion of T4 to T3 cannot fully account for T4 effects on the brain and suggests distinctive mechanisms of action for the two THs. While the brain shows gene expression alterations for methimazole and propylthiouracil, the environmental contaminant, perchlorate, had the greatest effect on the levels of mRNAs encoding proteins important in neural development and function. Our data identify gene expression profiles that can serve as exposure indicators of these chemicals. Keywords: time course