Brain-specific induction of secretoglobin 3A1 expression in mice treated with methylmercury.

We previously analyzed gene expression in the cerebellum of mice treated with methylmercury using microarrays, identifying 21 different genes that increased expression following the administration of methylmercury. It has already been shown that 5 of these genes encode chemokine molecular species. Among these genes, the expression of CCL4 chemokine was found to be specifically induced in the brain following methylmercury exposure. In this study, we examined the remaining 16 genes showing increased brain-specific induction of expression following methylmercury exposure. As a result, it was shown that the gene expression of Scgb3a1, encoding secretoglobin 3A1, was increased specifically by methylmercury administration.