Gene Expression Profiling Of Rat Livers After Continuous Whole-Body Exposure To Low-Dose Rate Of Gamma Rays

Purpose: To study gene expression modulation in response to continuous whole-body exposure to low-dose-rate gamma radiation and improve our understanding of the mechanism of this impact at the molecular basis.Materials and methods: cDNA microarray method with complete pooling of samples was used to study expression changes in the transcriptome profile of livers from rats treated with prolonged lowdose-rate ionizing radiation (IR) relative to that of sham-irradiated rats.Results: Of the 209 genes that were two-fold-up or down-regulated, 143 were known genes of which 27 were found in previous literatures to be modulated by IR. Remarkably, there were a significant number of differentially expressed genes involved in hepatic lipid metabolism.Conclusion: This study showed changes in transcriptome profile of livers from low-dose irradiated rats when compared with that of sham-irradiated ones. This study will be useful for studying the metabolic changes of human exposed for long term to cosmic ray such as in space and in polar regions.