Elsevier

Toxicology

Volume 252, Issues 1–3, 30 October 2008, Pages 9-16
Toxicology

Pyrazole induced oxidative liver injury independent of CYP2E1/2A5 induction due to Nrf2 deficiency

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tox.2008.07.058Get rights and content

Abstract

Pyrazole can induce CYP2E1 and 2A5, which produce reactive oxygen species (ROS). Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) regulates important antioxidant enzymes to remove ROS. In this study, we applied Nrf2 knockout mice to test the hypothesis that pyrazole will cause hepatotoxicity and elevate oxidative stress to a greater extent in Nrf2 knockout mice compared to wild type mice. Pyrazole induced severe oxidative liver damage in Nrf2 knockout mice but not in wild type mice. Activities and levels of CYP2E1 and 2A5 were elevated by pyrazole in the wild type mice but not in the Nrf2 knockout mice. However, expression or activity of Nrf2-regulated antioxidant enzymes, such as γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase (GCS), heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST), were upregulated in the pyrazole-treated wild type mice, but to a lesser extent or not at all in the pyrazole-treated Nrf2 knockout mice. Treatment with antioxidants such as vitamin C or S-adenosyl-l-methionine (SAM) or an inhibitor of iNOS prevented the pyrazole-induced oxidative liver damage, thus validating the role of oxidative/nitrosative stress in the pyrazole induced liver injury to the Nrf2 knockout mice. In summary, even though ROS-producing CYP2E1/2A5 were not elevated by pyrazole, impaired antioxidant capacity resulting from Nrf2 deficiency appear to be sufficient to promote pyrazole-induced oxidative liver injury.

Section snippets

Reagents

Pyrazole, lipopolyssachride (LPS), N(omega)-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME), S-adenosyl-methionine (SAM), 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (CDNB), p-nitrophenol (PNP), H2O2, 7-ethoxycoumarin, coumarin, Ac-DEVD-AMC, were purchased from Sigma (St. Louis, MO); thiobarbituric acid (TBA), o-phthalaldehyde, and vitamin C were from Fisher (Pittsburgh, PA).

Antibodies

Anti-3-nitrotyrosine (3-NT) adducts Ig G was from Upstate (Lake Placid, NY); Ig G for Nrf2 was from Santa Cruz Biotechnology (Santa Cruz, CA); Ig

Pyrazole induces necrotic hepatotoxicity in Nrf2 knockout mice but not in wild type mice

Serum ALT and AST, two markers for hepatic necrosis, increased dramatically after treatment with pyrazole in the Nrf2 knockout mice, but no changes in both serum ALT and AST were observed in the wild type mice (Fig. 1). Pathology evaluation showed that many necrotic areas around the central veins were found in the liver sections from the pyrazole-treated Nrf2 knockout mice, but no pathological change was observed in the pyrazole-treated wild type mice (Fig. 2). TUNEL staining, an assay for

Discussion

In this study, we found that pyrazole treatment alone induced hepatotoxicity in Nrf2 knockout mice but not in wild type mice. Similarly, elevated oxidative stress was detected in pyrazole-treated Nrf2 knockout mice but not in wild type mice. Vc, SAM and l-NAME protected against the pyrazole-induced liver injury in Nrf2 knockout mice. These results suggest that pyrazole-induced liver injury in Nrf2 knockout mice is due to oxidative stress.

Oxidative stress reflects a balance between production of

Conflicts of interest statement

The authors claim that the manuscript entitled “Pyrazole induced oxidative liver injury in Nrf2 knockout mice independent of cytochrome P450s” by Yongke Lu, Pengfei Gong, and Arthur Cederbaum has no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgement

We thank Drs. Jerome Lasker (Hackensack Biomedical Research Institute, Hackensack, NJ) and Risto Juvonen (Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland) for generously providing antibodies against CYP2E1 and 2A5, respectively.

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    These studies were supported by United State Public Health Service Grant AA06610 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

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