Butadiene and isoprene: future studies and implications

Lack of Isoprene Overproduction during Peritoneal Dialysis

Objective

Isoprene is the constitutive unit of isoprenoid lipids and sterols. However, it is also a potential toxic and carcinogenic agent. Recent findings of a marked and prolonged isoprene overproduction induced by hemodialysis sessions raises the question of isoprene behavior in patients on peritoneal dialysis.

Design

A study with repeated measures per patient and healthy control.

Setting

Nephrology and Dialysis Unit and Perugia University Medical School.

Patients

Sixteen consecutive patients on regular continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) were evaluated. Endogenous isoprene was analyzed using gas chromatographic assay of breath isoprene, collected at set times before and after dialysis fluid exchange.

Results

No significant variations were found in breath isoprene concentrations in the different samples from each patient, and levels were almost stable within the normal range of healthy controls.

Conclusion

These results show that CAPD, unlike hemodialysis, has little or no effect on isoprene and isoprenoid-related lipid turnover. This lack of increased endogenous isoprene synthesis, in addition to being a distinctive metabolic feature of CAPD, could have important pathophysiological and clinical implications.

In vivo roles of conjugation with glutathione and O6-alkylguanine DNA-alkyltransferase in the mutagenicity of the bis-electrophiles 1,2-dibromoethane and 1,2,3,4-diepoxybutane in mice

Several studies with bacteria and in vitro mammalian systems have provided evidence of the roles of two thiol-based conjugation systems, glutathione (GSH) transferase and O(6)-alkylguanine DNA-alkyltransferase (AGT), in the bioactivation of the bis-electrophiles 1,2-dibromoethane and 1,2,3,4-diepoxybutane (DEB), the latter an oxidation product of 1,3-butadiene. The in vivo relevance of these conjugation reactions to biological activity in mammals has not been addressed, particularly with DEB. In this work, we used transgenic Big Blue mice, utilizing the cII gene, to examine the effects of manipulation of conjugation pathways on liver mutations arising from dibromoethane and DEB in vivo. Treatment of the mice with butathionine sulfoxime (BSO) prior to dibromoethane lowered hepatic GSH levels, dibromoethane-GSH DNA adduct levels (N(7)-guanyl), and the cII mutation frequency. Administration of O(6)-benzylguanine (O(6)-BzGua), an inhibitor of AGT, did not change the mutation frequency. Depletion of GSH (BSO) and AGT (O(6)-BzGua) lowered the mutation frequency induced by DEB, and BSO lowered the levels of GSH-DEB N(7)-guanyl and N(6)-adenyl DNA adducts. Our results provide evidence that the GSH conjugation pathway is a major in vivo factor in dibromoethane genotoxicity; both GSH conjugation and AGT conjugation are major factors in the genotoxicity of DEB. The latter findings are considered to be relevant to the carcinogenicity of 1,3-butadiene.

Mutagenicity of a glutathione conjugate of butadiene diepoxide

The mutagenicity and carcinogenicity of the important commodity chemical 1,3-butadiene are attributed to the epoxide products. We confirmed our previous work showing that expression of rat glutathione (GSH) transferase 5-5 enhances the mutagenicity of butadiene diepoxide in Salmonella typhimurium TA1535. A GSH-butadiene diepoxide conjugate was isolated and fully characterized by mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance as S-(2-hydroxy-3,4-epoxybutyl)GSH. The conjugate had a t(½) of 2.6 h (pH 7.4, 37 °C) and was considerably more mutagenic than butadiene diepoxide or monoepoxide in S. typhimurium. We propose that the GSH conjugate may be a major species involved in butadiene genotoxicity, not a detoxication product.