Arsenic is a known human carcinogen. These studies were designed to examine the impact of low arsenite concentrations on immediate early gene expression in precision-cut rat lung slices. Precision-cut lung slices are a versatile in-vitro system for toxicity studies, as they preserve the architecture and cellular heterogeneity of the lung. Since 0.1-100 microM arsenite did not compromise slice viability at 4 hours, effects of arsenite on the expression of c-jun/AP-1, NFkappaB, HSP 32, HSP 72, HSP 60, and HSP 90 were studied, using these concentrations of arsenite at 4 h. Nuclear c-jun was increased by 10 and 100 microM arsenite, while NFkappaB was not affected. Gel-shift assays indicated that 10 microM arsenite resulted in an enhanced DNA-binding activity of both AP-1 and NFkappaB. Confocal microscopic analysis of AP-1 indicated nuclear localization of this transcription factor, mainly in type-II epithelial cells and alveolar macrophages. Nuclear localization of NFkappaB was lower than that observed for AP-1, while most of the NFkappaB was localized to cytoplasm of type-II epithelial cells and alveolar macrophages. HSP 32 was increased by 1.0 and 10 microM arsenite, while HSP 72 was increased by only 100 microM arsenite. HSP 60 and HSP 90 were not changed by arsenite. These studies indicate that noncytotoxic concentrations of arsenite are capable of affecting signal transduction pathways and gene expression in the lung.
