0000000000261433

AUTHOR

M. Pilar López-garcía

Peroxynitrite generated from constitutive nitric oxide synthase mediates the early biochemical injury in short-term cultured hepatocytes

AbstractEarly loss of P450 in rat hepatocyte cultures appears directly related to nitric oxide (NO) overproduction. This study provides experimental evidence for the induction – shortly after isolation through the classical procedure – of strong oxidative stress that involves both oxygen-derived and NO-derived species. NO formation at this stage is due to the early activation of liver constitutive NO synthase (cNOS). Immunodetection of nitrated proteins provides direct evidence of endogenous peroxynitrite (PN) formation upon hepatocyte isolation. On the basis of the combined use of dihydrorhodamine 123 and NOS inhibitors, the analysis of the amount, time course and nature of the species inv…

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Impact of fascioliasis reinfection on Fasciola hepatica egg shedding: relationship with the immune-regulatory response.

Abstract Fascioliasis is a disease caused by liver flukes. In human fascioliasis hyperendemic areas, reinfection and chronicity are the norm. Control strategies in humans require the use of egg count techniques to calculate the appropriate treatment dose for colic risk prevention. The present study investigates how fascioliasis reinfection affects liver fluke egg shedding and its relationship with the immune-regulatory response. The experimental design reproduced the usual reinfection/chronicity conditions in human fascioliasis endemic areas and included Fasciola hepatica primo-infected Wistar rats (PI) and rats reinfected at 4 weeks (R4), 8 weeks (R8), 12 weeks (R12), and negative control …

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Kinetics of tienilic acid bioactivation and functional generation of drug–protein adducts in intact rat hepatocytes

13 pages; Drug-induced autoimmune hepatitis is among the most severe hepatic idiosyncratic adverse drug reactions. Considered multifactorial, the disease combines immunological and metabolic aspects, the latter being to date much better known. As for many other model drugs, studies on tienilic acid (TA)-induced hepatitis have evidenced the existence of bioactivation during the hepatic oxidation of the drug, allowing the identification of the neoantigen of anti-LKM2 autoantibodies and the pathway responsible for its formation. However, most of these results are based on the use of microsomal fractions whose relevance to the liver in vivo still needs to be established. In the more complex int…

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An experimental design for the controlled modulation of intracellular GSH levels in cultured hepatocytes

This work proposes a practical experimental approach that allows the rapid in situ generation of a wide range of intracellular GSH concentrations in the intact hepatocyte under highly reproducible conditions. The strategy involves the use of diethyl maleate, a thiol-reactive electrophile that causes rapid and extensive GSH depletion, as well as GSH monoethylester, a GSH analogue that is readily taken up by cells and deesterified intracellularly to render GSH. For both agents, we have analyzed (i) the minimal exposure time required to produce a maximal and dose-related effect on intracellular GSH without altering hepatocyte viability or subsequent survival in culture, and (ii) the relative s…

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Involvement of Peroxynitrite on the Early Loss of P450 in Short-Term Hepatocyte Cultures

The biological chemistry of nitric oxide (NO) in the oxygenated cellular environment is extremely complex. It involves the direct interaction of NO with specific biomolecules and the so-called indirect effects, due to secondary more potent oxidant species derived from NO which are also able to react with DNA, lipids, thiols and transition metals (Wink et al. 1996; Nathan, 1992). In addition to its regulatory role as a signalling molecule (Nathan, 1992; Moncada and Palmer, 1991) it has become evident that NO (or NO-derived species) is a critical factor involved in various toxicological mechanisms (Wink et al. 1996; Wang et al. 1998; Estevez et al. 1999; Wink et al. 1999). Some controversy ex…

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Differential sensitivity of rat hepatocyte CYP isoforms to self-generated nitric oxide.

AbstractEarly loss of P450 in rat hepatocyte cultures appears directly related to nitric oxide (NO) overproduction. This study investigates the influence of endogenously generated NO (or NO-derived species) on the relative expression of cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoforms in rat hepatocytes. Our results support the view that loss of P450 holoenzyme in culture is the ultimate consequence of a NO driven process, activated during the common hepatocyte isolation procedure, that leads to an accelerated and selective degradation of specific CYP apoproteins. Under conditions in which NO and peroxynitrite formation is operative, changes in the level of specific CYP isoforms result in a significant alter…

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