Gene expression profiling and network analysis reveals lipid and steroid metabolism to be the most favored by TNFalpha in HepG2 cells.

Abstract

BackgroundThe proinflammatory cytokine, TNFalpha, is a crucial mediator of the pathogenesis of several diseases, more so in cases involving the liver wherein it is critical in maintaining liver homeostasis since it is a major determiner of hepatocyte life and death. Gene expression profiling serves as an appropriate strategy to unravel the underlying signatures to envisage such varied responses and considering this, gene transcription profiling was examined in control and TNFalpha treated HepG2 cells.Methods and findingsMicroarray experiments between control and TNFalpha treated HepG2 cells indicated that TNFalpha could significantly alter the expression profiling of 140 genes; among those up-regulated, several GO (Gene Ontology) terms related to lipid and fat metabolism were significantly (pConclusionsTNFalpha alters the transcriptome profiling within HepG2 cells with an interesting catalog of genes being affected and those involved in lipid and steroid metabolism to be the most favored. This study represents a composite analysis of the effects of TNFalpha in HepG2 cells that encompasses the altered transcriptome profiling, the functional analysis of the up- and down- regulated genes and the identification of conserved transcription factor binding sites. These could possibly determine TNFalpha mediated alterations mainly the phenotypes of hepatic steatosis and fatty liver associated with several hepatic pathological states.