A transcriptionally induced antioxidant program is elicited in thyroid cells after exposure to hydrogen peroxide

Radiation is an established cause of thyroid cancer and growing evidence supports a role for H2O2 in spontaneous thyroid carcinogenesis. Little is known about the molecular programs activated by these agents in thyroid cells. We profiled the DNA damage response and cell death induced by -radiation (0.15Gy) and H2O2 (0.00250.3mM) in primary human thyroid cells and T-cells. While the two cell types had more comparable radiation responses, 3- to 10-fold more H2O2 was needed to induce detectable DNA damage in thyrocytes. At H2O2 and radiation doses incurring double-strand breaks (DSB), cell death occurred after 24hrs in T-cells, but not in thyrocytes. We next prepared thyroid and T-cells primary cultures from 8 donors operated for non-cancerous pathologies and profiled their genome-wide transcriptional response 4hr after: 1) exposure to 1 Gy radiation, 2) treatment with H2O2, or 3) no treatment. Two H2O2 doses were investigated, calibrated in each cell type as to elicit levels of single- and double-strand breaks equivalent to 1 Gy -radiation. The transcriptional responses of thyrocyte and T-cells to radiation were similar, involving DNA repair and cell death genes. In addition to this transcriptional program, H2O2 also upregulated antioxidant genes in thyrocytes, including glutathione peroxidases (GPx) at the DSB-inducing dose. By contrast, a transcriptional storm involving thousands of genes was raised in T-cells. Finally, we showed that GPx inhibition reduced the DNA damaging effect of H2O2 in thyrocytes. We conjecture that defects of anti- H2O2 protection could promote spontaneous thyroid cancers.

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Versteyhe S, Driessens N, Ghaddhab C, Tarabichi M, Hoste C, Dumont JE, Miot F, Corvilain B, Detours V