Hepatic protein pattern alterations following perfluorodecanoic acid exposure in rats

The effect after 8 days of 20 and 50 mg/kg in vivo exposure to perfluoro-n-decanoic acid (PFDA) on the protein pattern of rat liver whole homogenates was studied using high-resolution, large-scale two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. PFDA exposure altered 13 proteins reproducibly in each of 5 samples tested. While most of the altered proteins remained unidentified, several known mitochondrial proteins were induced by PFDA as were others in a dose-related manner. Conversely, PFDA caused the reduction of albumin as well as several unknown proteins, also in a dose-related manner. Cytoskeletal proteins were unaffected by PFDA. The present results suggest that PFDA's toxic mechanism may involve more than membrane integration and lipid accumulation. Changes in the two-dimensional protein pattern indicate that selective protein synthetic or catabolic processes may undergo qualitative alterations after PFDA treatment as well.