Differentially expressed genes in the liver of thioacetamide treated rats

Thioacetamide is a hepatotoxic and hepatocarcinogenic compound that affects liver metabolism, inhibits mRNA transport and induces enlargement of the nucleolus. To investigate the effect of thioacetamide at the molecular level, differential display RT-PCR was conducted. Analysis of nineteen differentially expressed genes demonstrated that ten cDNAs have their expression inhibited while the other nine were positively affected by thioacetamide. Two of the cDNAs were homologous to known genes-TAP and ankyrin-binding glycoprotein-1, two corresponded to repetitive sequences and seven were homologous to expressed sequence tags. The differential expression of some of the isolated cDNAs was confirmed by northern hybridization. It is proposed that since the product of TAP is involved in mRNA transport, thioacetamide inhibition of TAP expression might, at least partially, explain the thioacetamide-induced swelling of the nucleolus. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.