Gene expression profiling of low dose exposure of saturated aliphatic aldehydes in A549 human alveolar epithelial cells

Abstract

Low-molecular weight saturated aliphatic aldehydes (LSAAs), which include propanal, butanal, pentanal, hexanal, octanal, nonanal and heptanal, are volatile organic compounds (VOCs). They are ubiquitous in the environment of our daily life. Although LSAAs are harmful, with mutagenic and carcinogenic effects, the mechanisms underlying the toxicity of volatile aldehydes are still unclear. Therefore, in this study, we performed genome-wide expression profile analysis of A549 human alveolar epithelial cells exposed to seven LSSAs. We selected genes whose expression was changed more than 1.5-fold in A549 cells exposed to LSAAs by analysis of gene expression profiles using human oligonucleotide chips. Through gene expression profiling, we showed that LSSAs are related to the key biological processes defense response, inflammatory response and immune response in gene ontology (GO) analysis. In addition, we identified two genes that were up-regulated (GREB1, BC009808) and four that were down-regulated (UCP1, TCP11, FNDC3A, LOC645206) by all the tested LSAAs. Our data suggest that LSAAs exert toxic effects on A549 cells by modulating mRNA expression. Moreover, we suggest that genes expressed in response to LSAAs represent a molecular signature that can be widely used, in combination with more traditional techniques, to assess and predict the toxicity caused by exposure to LSAAs. ？ 2012 Korean Society of Environmental Risk Assessment and Health Science and Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.