Project description:The constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) and the pregnane X receptor (PXR) are closely related nuclear receptors involved in drug metabolism and play important roles in the mechanism of phenobarbital (PB)-induced rodent nongenotoxic hepatocarcino- genesis. Here, we have used a humanized CAR/PXR mouse model to examine potential species differences in receptor-dependent mechanisms underlying liver tissue molecular responses to PB. Early and late transcriptomic responses to sustained PB exposure were investigated in liver tissue from double knock-out CAR and PXR (CARKO -PXRKO ), double humanized CAR and PXR (CARh - PXRh), and wild-type C57BL/6 mice. Wild-type and CARh-PXRh mouse livers exhibited temporally and quantitatively similar tran- scriptional responses during 91 days of PB exposure including the sustained induction of the xenobiotic response gene Cyp2b10, the Wnt signaling inhibitor Wisp1, and noncoding RNA biomarkers from the Dlk1-Dio3 locus. Transient induction of DNA replication (Hells, Mcm6, and Esco2) and mitotic genes (Ccnb2, Cdc20, and Cdk1) and the proliferation-related nuclear antigen Mki67 were ob- served with peak expression occurring between 1 and 7 days PB ex- posure. All these transcriptional responses were absent in CARKO- PXRKO mouse livers and largely reversible in wild-type and CARh - PXRh mouse livers following 91 days of PB exposure and a subse- quent 4-week recovery period. Furthermore, PB-mediated upregu- lation of the noncoding RNA Meg3, which has recently been associ- ated with cellular pluripotency, exhibited a similar dose response and perivenous hepatocyte-specific localization in both wild-type and CARh-PXRh mice. Thus, mouse livers coexpressing human CAR and PXR support both the xenobiotic metabolizing and the proliferative transcriptional responses following exposure to PB. 13-week oral (drinking water) investigative phenobarbital study in male C57BL/6 wild type, CAR/PXR knockout and humanized CAR/PXR mice with a 4 week recovery period

Project description:Liver tumors in rodents are frequently induced by non-genotoxic carcinogens. These hepatocarcinogens generally activate hepatic nuclear receptors (e.g., CAR and PXR), resulting in a cascade of signals causing modifications in the expression of genes responsible for several processes involved in carcinogenesis. Evaluation of the carcinogenic potential of chemicals is a regulatory requirement but is time-consuming and expensive. Consequently, several short-term in vivo and in vitro approaches, using molecular tools, have been proposed as predictive models for non-genotoxic hepatocarcinogens. The objective of our study was to discriminate between chemicals that are either non-genotoxic hepatocarcinogens or merely hepatotoxicants and also between CAR and PXR modulators on the basis of their gene expression profiles. Thus, we treated rats for seven days with the hepatoxicants, diclofenac and diazepam, or with several CAR and PXR modulators, which were mainly hepatocarcinogens. Different hepatic gene expression profiles were obtained not only between the hepatotoxicants and the non-genotoxic hepatocarcinogens but also between the CAR activators phenobarbital, phenytoin and 1,1-bis-(4-chlorophenyl)-2,2-dichloroethene which were grouped together, and the two PXR activators pregnenolone 16Î±-carbonitrile and clotrimazole. Diethylstilbestrol had an expression profile that was quite distinct from the other PXR activators, suggesting that this compound is certainly not a classic PXR modulator. Moreover, some differences were observed between phenytoin (not considered as a hepatocarcinogen), and the other two CAR activators. Our data therefore indicate that discrimination is possible between hepatocarcinogens and hepatotoxicants, between CAR and PXR modulators and also between compounds within the same class of modulators using a short-term transcriptomic approach. CAR or PXR inducers were administered in suspension to rats (7 weeks old at start of treatment) by oral gavage at a daily dose for 7 consecutive days. Treatment-related changes in gene expression were determined in the liver using whole genome oligonucleotide microarrays.

Dataset Information

Effect of phenobarbital on CAR and PXR regulated genes involved in drug metabolism and cholesterol homeostasis

Publications

Transcriptional activation of PPARalpha by phenobarbital in the absence of CAR and PXR.

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