Silencing of peroxiredoxin III inhibits formaldehyde‐induced oxidative damage of bone marrow cells in BALB/c mice

Abstract Background Formaldehyde (FA) is associated with the occurrence of leukemia, and oxidative stress is considered to be a major reason. As an endogenous biomarker of oxidative stress, few studies focus on the relationship between peroxiredoxin III (PrxIII) and FA toxicity. Our previous research observed high expression of PrxIII occurred in the process of apoptosis of bone marrow cells (BMCs) induced by FA, however the exact mechanism is unclear. Therefore, this paper aimed to explore the possible association between FA toxicity and PrxIII gene. Methods We first, used a Cell Counting Kit‐8 (CCK‐8) to detect the viability of BMCs after they were exposed to different doses of FA (50, 100, 200 μmol/L) for different exposure time (12, 24, 48 h), then chose 24 h as an exposure time to detect the expression of PrxIII for exposing different doses of FA by Quantitative reverse transcription‐PCR (qRT‐PCR) and Western blot analysis. Based on our preliminary experimental results, we chose 100 μmol/L FA as an exposure dose to expose for 24 h, and used a small interfering RNA (siRNA) to silenced PrxIII to examine the cell viability by CCK‐8, reactive oxygen species (ROS) level by DCFH‐DA, apoptosis by Annexin V/PI double staining and cell cycle by flow cytometry (FCM) so as to explore the possible regulatory effect of PrxIII silencing on FA‐induced bone marrow toxicity. Results High expression of PrxIII occurred in the process of FA‐induced oxidative stress. Silencing of PrxIII prevented FA from inducing oxidative stress, thus increasing cell viability, decreasing ROS level, rescuing G 0 –G 1 and G 2 –M arrest, and reducing cell apoptosis. Conclusion PrxIII silencing might be a potential target for alleviating FA‐induced oxidative damage.