Effect of phenobarbital or pregnenolone-16alpha-carbonitrile (PCN) pretreatment on acute carbon tetrachloride hepatotoxicity in rats

Toxicological significance of liver hypertrophy produced by inducers of drug-metabolizing enzymes

Changes in enzyme activity due to induction by chemicals is an important property that can determine the type of response seen in tissues exposed to environmental chemicals. Two major types of response, acute irreversible liver cell injury or death (necrosis) and long-term cancer induction, are discussed in terms of their modulation by enzyme induction. Most commonly, enzyme induction leads to a more severe toxic response by the liver, and to more cell death. However, inducers may have a protective effect, especially in carcinogenesis, when they most frequently protect against cancer induction if used early in the process. There is a discrepancy between this observation and the increase in mutagenic activity of liver preparations observed after induction. However, when enzyme induction occurs at a later stage, after initiation, it often accelerates or promotes cancer induction. Also, new cell populations constantly observed during liver carcinogenesis are composed of very hypertrophic hepatocytes containing a large amount of smooth endoplasmic reticulum. This is associated with a radical change in enzyme activities in the reticulum, which may account in part for the characteristic resistance exhibited by initiated cells to hepatotoxins and carcinogens. The resistance is considered to be an important property that may play a key role in the development of cancer under some circumstances.

Effect of pregnenolone-16 alpha-carbonitrile and dexamethasone on acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity in mice

Recently, we demonstrated that a microsomal enzyme inducer with a steroidal structure, pregnenolone-16 alpha-carbonitrile (PCN), markedly decreased the hepatotoxicity of acetaminophen (AA) in hamsters. Therefore, it was of interest to determine if PCN, as well as another steroid microsomal enzyme inducer, dexamethasone (DEX), would decrease the toxicity of AA in mice, another species sensitive to AA hepatotoxicity. Mice were pretreated with PCN or DEX (100 and 75 mg/kg, ip, for 4 days, respectively) and were given AA (300-500 mg/kg, ip). Twenty-four hours after AA administration, liver injury was assessed by measuring serum activities of sorbitol dehydrogenase and alanine aminotransferase and by histopathological examination. Neither PCN nor DEX protected markedly against AA hepatotoxicity in mice; PCN tended to decrease AA-induced hepatotoxicity, whereas DEX was found to enhance AA-induced hepatotoxicity and it produced some hepatotoxicity itself. DEX decreased the glutathione concentration (36%) in liver and increased the biliary excretion of AA-GSH, which reflects the activation of AA, whereas PCN produced neither effect. Thus, whereas PCN has been shown to markedly decrease the hepatotoxicity of AA in hamsters, apparently by decreasing the isoform of P450 responsible for activating AA to N-acetyl-p-benzoquinoneimine, this does not occur in mice after induction with either PCN or DEX. In contrast, DEX enhances AA hepatotoxicity apparently by decreasing liver GSH levels and increasing the activation of AA to a cytotoxic metabolite.

Effect of benzopyrone derivatives on drug activity and metabolism

In female rats, zoxazolamine paralysis time and mortality caused by indomethacin were significantly reduced by pretreatment with khellin, 7,8-benzoflavone or rutin. Pretreatment with khellin and 7,8-benzoflavone increased the in vitro zoxazolamine and ethylmorphine metabolism. These results were compared with those obtained by equimolar doses of phenobarbital, pregnenolone-16 alpha-carbonitrile and spironolactone in experiments performed simultaneously. It was concluded: Khellin, 7,8-benzoflavone and rutin increased the body's resistance to drugs via induction of the drug metabolizing enzymes of the liver, this action has about the same magnitude with that of phenobarbital and pregnenolone-16 alpha-carbonitrile. For the benzopyrone derivatives, some common structural features have been indicated as probable structural requirements for drug metabolizing enzyme inductive activity in this group of compounds.

Liver injuries induced by cyclochlorotine isolated from Penicillium islandicum

Sequential morphological changes in murine liver induced by cyclochlorotine (CC), a secondary metabolite of Penicillium islandicum were investigated by transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Within 15 min after the administration of CC there was a marked dilatation of Disse's space around the portal triads, and the exudates then poured out into the space which was formed by the invagination of the hepatocyte plasma membrane. Shortly after the invagination was completed, the connection between Disse's space and the invaginated space was pinched off, so that this space became a membrane-bound vacuole. After dehydration, the vacuoles became granular. The liver injuries induced by CC were influenced by various pretreatments. The results indicate that drug-metabolizing systems mediated by cytochrome p-450 in the hepatocytes may play an important role in the hepatotoxicity of CC.

Studies on carbon tetrachloride-ethanol interactions in mice

Male C57BL/6J (C57) and DBA/2J (DBA) inbred mice were dosed with either corn oil or carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) in corn oil 24 h before a 3.25 g/kg i.p. dose of ethanol. The CCl4 doses were increased in approximate half-log intervals (5, 15, 50, 150 or 500 microliter/kg, intragastrically (i.g.)). Blood acetaldehyde concentrations were significantly increased 1, 2, 3 and 4 h after ethanol administration at CCl4 doses of 15 microliter/kg and higher, with DBA and C57 mice exhibiting similar dose-response effects up to the 150 microliter/kg dose. A CCL4 dose of 500 microliter/kg produced differences in blood acetaldehyde elevation between the two inbred strains (DBA - 5-fold, C57 - 3-fold). Associated with the elevation of blood acetaldehyde content was a decrease in the rat of elimination of ethanol from blood. Using male genetically heterogeneous stock (HS) mice it was shown that phenobarbital pretreatment potentiated the CCl4-induced decrease in in vivo acetaldehyde oxidation. An equimolar dose of CHCl3 (0.5 mmol/kg) was without effect in either control or phenobarbital-pretreated mice. Mice pretreated with 0.5 mmol/kg, i.g., 1,2-dichloroethane, 1, 1,2-trichloroethylene or bromobenzene did not exhibit significant interaction with ethanol. These data show that in vivo acetaldehyde oxidation is inhibited by very low doses of CCl4 (15 microliter/kg, i.g.) and that this inhibition is enhanced by the cytochrome P-450-inducing agent phenobarbital.

Functional and biochemical correlates of chlordecone exposure and its enhancement of CCl4 hepatotoxicity

Animals pretreated with chlordecone exhibit a greatly increased hepatotoxic response to CCl4 challenge. Possible mechanisms underlying this interaction were examined. A single p.o. administration of chlordecone (5 mg/kg) was followed by CCl4 (200 microliter/kg) administered i.p. 48 h later. Twenty-four hours later, animals treated with chlordecone mccl4 had decreased hepatic excretory function (20% of controls) and elevated plasma transaminase activities and bilirubin. Hepatic mixed function oxidase activity was assessed as pentobarbital sleeping time and was not affected by chlordecone pretreatment. Irreversible binding of label from 14CCl4 to hepatic protein or lipid was not different in the chlordecone group compared to vehicle controls. Hepatic and renal glutathione concentrations were not affected by chlordecone alone (at 6 h, 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 days) or by a combination of chlordecone (48 h) and CCl4 (24 h). CCl4-induced lipid peroxidation of liver tissue, measured in vitro or in vivo, was not increased by chlordecone treatment. Thus, while the mechanism for the enhanced toxicity remains to be elucidated, these results suggest that the interaction between chlordecone and CCl4 is a subtle one, not causally involving increased covalent binding of the toxin, increased susceptibility of tissue lipids to peroxidative damage or decreased hepatic GSH.

Dimethylnitrosamine-demethylase: molecular size-dependence of repression by polynuclear hydrocarbons. Nonhydrocarbon repressors

Studies with 58 polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons have shown that to repress demethylation of dimethylnitrosamine (DMN) in rat liver, the hydrocarbons must satisfy specific requirements of molecular geometry regarding size, shape, and coplanarity. Expressing the molecular size of these planar compounds by the two-dimensional area occupied, the size for maximal repressor activity ranges between about 85 and 150 A2. In addition to being within the correct molecular size range the hydrocarbons must have an elongated-rather than compact-molecular shape; circularly shaped and/or highly symmetrical hydrocarbons, such as coronene, triphenylene, ovalene, and tetrabenzonaphthalene, have very low activity or are inactive, in spite of being in the optimum size range. Coplanarity of the molecule is a critical requirement; thus, the potent carcinogen, 9,10-dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene, is inactive as repressor of DMN-demethylase synthesis. Two exceptions, fluoranthene and benzol[ghi] fluoranthene, showed significant induction of DMN-demethylase. The molecular size distribution of hydrocarbons that repress the DMN-demethylase shows a mirror-image relationship with respect to the earlier reported molecular size requirement for indcution of azo dye N-demethylase. Compounds other than hydrocarbons also show the mirror-image relationship in the sense that pregnenolene-16alpha-carbonitrile, alpha- and beta-naphthoflavone, and Aroclor 1254 (known to be inducers of various mixed-function oxidases) are strong repressors of DMN-demethylase. Aminoacetonitrile, a strong inhibitor of carcinogenesis by DMN, is also a potent repressor of DMN-demethylase. The enzyme is inhibited by pretreatment of the animals with cobaltous chloride, an inhibitor of the synthesis of cytochrome P-450. Pregnenolone-16alpha-carbonitrile and 3-methylcholanthrene, despite their similarity of action on DMN-demethylase, have different effects on azo reductase, which is repressed by the former and induced by the latter compound.