Genome-wide changes in transcript levels in tongues after 4-NQO and ethanol treatment

Tobacco use and alcohol consumption are two major contributing factors for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) carcinogenesis. We combined the 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide (4-NQO) oral carcinogenesis mouse model and the Meadows-Cook alcohol mouse models and performed next generation genome-wide RNA-sequencing of tongues. We determined changes in transcript levels in four groups: 4-NQO followed by ethanol treatment (4-NQO/EtOH), 4-NQO followed by normal drinking water (4-NQO/Untr.), vehicle control followed by ethanol treatment (V.C./EtOH), and vehicle control followed by normal drinking water (V.C./Untr.). We found that the 494 gene transcripts were significantly changed (at least a 2-fold change where p<0.05) in the V.C./EtOH group compared to the V.C./Untr. group. The 4-NQO/Untr. group had 1,808 transcripts significantly changed compared to the V.C./Untr group, while the 4-NQO/EtOH group had 3,606 significantly changed transcripts as compared to the V.C/Untr. group. This study is the first to show that 4-NQO followed by ethanol cause the largest number of changes in transcript levels in the tongue. Overall design: High-throughput Illumina HiSeq2000 Deep Sequencing results were compared to the mm9 mouse reference genome. Enrichment levels were determined using the Cufflinks software using the unit of fragments per kilobase per million reads (FPKM) model. n=3 for each treatment group.

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Urvalek AM, Osei-Sarfo K, Tang XH, Zhang T, Scognamiglio T, Gudas LJ