Gene expression profile of ethanol-treated rats by supplementation with Vitamin E: proposal of a new parameter for alcohol-induced oxidative stress evaluation

Abstract

Oxidative stress is an important factor in alcoholism, being the major responsible for the characteristic physiopathologic condition of the Alcoholic Liver Disease, in which the endogen antioxidants depletion resultant from the increased synthesis of free radicals contributes to the lipid peroxidation associated to the hepatic damage. An important parameter on investigation of the antioxidant effects is the behavior assessment from oxidative stress biomarkers in controlled supplementation studies. New tools of molecular epidemiology are being developed in the attempt of establish a precise analysis of oxidative stress as well as antioxidant levels, aiming a reliable evaluation with respect to the antioxidant supplementation effects on specific clinical conditions. The existent methods for these analyses have been considered inefficacious. Recent studies have evidenced changes in gene expression profile in different experimental models for alcoholism; however there is no report about the effect of antioxidant treatment on gene expression. The current study will be developed in order to propose a new parameter for evaluation of alcoholism-induced oxidative stress, by means of the analysis of hepatic gene expression profile in rats treated with ethanol in the absence and presence of vitamin E supplementation, using microarrays. Thus, differentially expressed genes will be selected as biomarkers and their expression measured by the quantitative technique real-time RT-PCR, which will be proposed as a new parameter for evaluation of alcoholism-induced oxidative stress.