Rapid analysis of gene expression changes caused by liver carcinogens and chemopreventive agents using a newly developed three-dimensional microarray system

We investigated changes of gene expression in livers of rats treated with carcinogens and tumor promoters using a novel three-dimensional microarray system developed by Olympus Optical Co., Ltd., to assess the feasibility of predicting modifying effects on hepatocarcinogenesis on the basis of changes in the patterns. For this purpose, two genotoxic carcinogens, two non-genotoxic carcinogens (promoters) and seven candidate chemopreventive agents were examined. Six-week-old male F344 rats were treated for 2 weeks with the 11 chemicals (0.05% phenobarbital, 0.3% clofibrate, 0.01% N-diethylnitrosamine (DEN), 0.01% 2-amino-3,8-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (MeIQx), 1% catechol, 1% caffeic acid, 0.05% nobiletin, 0.05% garcinol, 0.05% auraptene, 0.05% zermbone and 0.05% V-acetoxychavicol acetate (ACA). Test chemicals were mixed in food with the exception of DEN, which was administered in drinking water. RNAs from liver were then analyzed using two kinds of customized microarrays (PamChip(R) microarray A spotted for 28 genes of drug-metabolizing enzymes in duplicate, and PamChip(R) microarray B spotted for 131 genes which are known to be up- or down-regulated in hepatocarcinoma cells). Hybridization and subsequent analysis were usually completed within 2 h and the data obtained were highly reproducible. Carcinogens were classified into genotoxic and nongenotoxic substances by clustering analysis. We could also divide test chemicals into carcinogens and chemopreventive agents from their effects on gene expression. In this study, we have thus shown that it is feasible to predict the modifying effects of chemicals on the basis of changes of gene expression patterns after only 2 weeks of exposure, using our novel three-dimensional microarrays.