Effects of pretreatment with pyrazole and inducers of mixed function oxidases on DNA repair elicited by dimethylnitrosamine in rat hepatocytes in vivo and in vitro

Inhibition of CYP2E1 leads to decreased malondialdehyde-acetaldehyde adduct formation in VL-17A cells under chronic alcohol exposure

AIM

Ethanol metabolism leads to the formation of acetaldehyde and malondialdehyde. Acetaldehyde and malondialdehyde can together form malondialdehyde-acetaldehyde (MAA) adducts. The role of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and cytochrome P4502E1 (CYP2E1) in the formation of MAA-adducts in liver cells has been investigated.

MAIN METHODS

Chronic ethanol treated VL-17A cells over-expressing ADH and CYP2E1 were pretreated with the specific CYP2E1 inhibitor - diallyl sulfide or ADH inhibitor - pyrazole or ADH and CYP2E1 inhibitor - 4-methyl pyrazole. Malondialdehyde, acetaldehyde or MAA-adduct formation was measured along with assays for viability, oxidative stress and apoptosis.

KEY FINDINGS

Inhibition of CYP2E1 with 10 μM diallyl sulfide or ADH with 2mM pyrazole or ADH and CYP2E1 with 5mM 4-methyl pyrazole led to decreased oxidative stress and toxicity in chronic ethanol (100 mM) treated VL-17A cells. In vitro incubation of VL-17A cell lysates with acetaldehyde and malondialdehyde generated through ethanol led to increased acetaldehyde (AA)-, malondialdehyde (MDA)-, and MAA-adduct formation. Specific inhibition of CYP2E1 or ADH and the combined inhibition of ADH and CYP2E1 greatly decreased the formation of the protein aldehyde adducts. Specific inhibition of CYP2E1 led to the greatest decrease in oxidative stress, toxicity and protein aldehyde adduct formation, implicating that CYP2E1 accelerates the formation of protein aldehyde adducts which can be an important mechanism for alcohol mediated liver injury.

SIGNIFICANCE

CYP2E1-mediated metabolism of ethanol leads to increased AA-, MDA-, and MAA-adduct formation in liver cells which may aggravate liver injury.

Effects of pretreatment with inducers of hepatic mixed function oxidases on DNA repair elicited by various compounds in hepatocytes from adult and neonatal rats

Studies were conducted to assess the effects of inducers of hepatic mixed function oxidases on DNA repair responses to 13 different genotoxic agents in hepatocytes from adult male mice. Phenobarbital pretreatment increased DNA repair elicited by diethylnitrosamine but had no effect on responses to the other compounds. Pretreatment with p,p'-dichlorodiphenyltrichlorethane, 3-methyl-cholanthrene or beta-naphthoflavone induced the DNA repair responses to a variety of activation-dependent carcinogens. DNA repair responses to the direct-acting alkylating agents methyl methanesulfonate and N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine were not increased by any of the pretreatments, which indicated that the pretreatment-related enhancement of responses to the other compounds was due to induction of their metabolic activation. Taken together, the findings suggest that Aroclor, or other pretreatments, may increase the sensitivity of the hepatocyte DNA repair assay for detecting the genotoxicity of certain compounds; however, the potential benefit may be limited due to specific features of the assay. In contrast, Aroclor pretreatment did not produce any enhancement of in vivo DNA repair elicited by dimethylnitrosamine, diethylnitrosamine, o-aminoazotoluene, 2-acetylaminofluorene, 3-methylcholanthrene or aflatoxin B1, and thus does not appear to be useful for improving the sensitivity of the in vivo/in vitro assay. Whereas the amount of DNA repair produced by dimethylnitrosamine was not increased by classical inducers of liver microsomal enzymes, pretreatment with pyrazole greatly augmented in vitro and in vivo DNA repair responses to dimethylnitrosamine; responses to diethylnitrosamine were increased to a lesser degree by pyrazole pretreatment. The effects of lactational exposure to enzyme inducing agents on DNA repair in neonatal hepatocytes was also investigated.