Does and duration of exposure time dependent regulation of proteins in the urinary bladder of hamsters exposed to sodium arsenite

Authors

• Uttam Chowdhury Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, The University of Arizona, Life Sciences South, Tucson, Arizona, 85721-0106, USA

Abstract

Differential in Gel Electrophoresis (DIGE) coupled with Mass Spectrometry (MS) has been used to study the proteomic changes in the urinary bladder of hamsters exposed to sodium arsenite in their drinking water.

Hamsters were exposed to sodium arsenite (173 mg, 57 mg, or 1 mg As/L) in drinking water for 6, 21, or 10 days, respectively, and the control hamsters were given tap water. Several protein spots were down-regulated and several were up-regulated in the urinary bladder of hamsters exposed to sodium arsenite (173 mg As/L) for 6 days, as compared to controls. The volume ratio changes of these proteins in the bladder of hamsters exposed to arsenite were significantly different than that of control hamsters.

Most of the protein spots were unchanged in the urinary bladder sample of hamsters exposed to sodium arsenite (57 mg As/L or 1 mg As/L) for 21 days or 10 days, respectively, as compared with the urinary bladder control samples. Perhaps, the low doses of sodium arsenite and short time exposure were not sufficient to up-regulate or down-regulate the proteins in the bladders of hamsters.

Our results indicate that DIGE can provide new and valuables information as to the specific properties improved in mechanisms of inorganic arsenic toxicity and carcinogenicity.

Abbreviations: DIGE, Differential in Gel Electrophoresis; LC- MS,  Liquid chromatography- Mass Spectrometry; GST-pi, glutathione S transferase-pi.