Expression Profiles of Selenium-Related Genes in Human Chondrocytes Exposed to T-2 Toxin and Deoxynivalenol.

The combination of excess mycotoxin exposure and selenium deficiency has been widely considered as a cause of Kashin-Beck disease (KBD). The present study aimed to investigate the expression profiles of selenium-related genes in human chondrocytes after exposure to T-2 toxin and deoxynivalenol (DON) and to preliminarily identify the potential biological functions of the identified genes. Gene expression profiling was performed on human chondrocytes treated with 0.01 μg/ml T-2 toxin and 1.0 μg/ml DON by using Affymetrix Human Gene Arrays. The 1660 selenium-related genes were derived from the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database. Gene-term enrichment analysis was conducted by the DAVID gene annotation tool. Our results showed that 69 and 191 selenium-related genes were differentially expressed after T-2 toxin and DON treatment, respectively. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis showed that these identified genes were involved in various biological functions, such as the GO terms in response to oxidative stress, cell cycle arrest, and apoptotic process and the KEGG metabolic, FoxO signaling, and p53 signaling pathways. Our results may help explain the mechanisms of interaction between mycotoxins and selenium following human chondrocyte damage and reveal the potential roles of environmental risk factors in cartilage lesions during KBD development.