Fig. 5

Selenite treatment caused unfolded protein response (UPR) and lipid peroxidation-associated ferroptosis. A GSEA analysis of the RNA-seq data at the gene resolution revealed significant UPR in H1975 treated with 5 µM selenite but not in H358 treated with 2.5 µM selenite. B RT-qPCR results of both cell lines treated for 72 h at 2.5 µM or 5.0 µM selenite confirmed the findings in transcriptome sequencing related to enriched UPR and ferroptosis pathway. C Western blot analysis of representative protein markers of UPR confirmed its activation after selenite treatment of 72 h. D Heatmap of the DEGs that was documented to show expression changes in the validated database of FerrDB demonstrated alteration in ferroptosis-related gene mRNA expression 38. E C-11 BODIPY staining in cells after 72-h selenite treatment showed an increased level of lipid peroxidation in H1975 and H358