Pyrazole, cobalt and phenobarbital increase the activity of coumarin 7-hydroxylase (COH) in mouse liver. To study the mechanism of this increase, we measured the expression of the cytochrome P-450 2a-4/5 (Cyp2a-4/5) complex, which mediates testosterone 15 alpha-hydroxylase and COH activities, as a function of dose and time after the treatment of C57BL/6 (B6) and DBA/2 (D2) male mice with the inducers. COH activity and Cyp2a-4/5 steady-state mRNA levels were increased in both strains in response to the inducers. No marked effect occurred with testosterone 15 alpha-hydroxylase or activities associated with Cyp1a-1 or Cyp2e-1. A 2-7-fold increase in response to the inducers was seen in the amount of P-450Coh (cytochrome P-450 isoenzyme catalysing coumarin 7-hydroxylation) protein in Western immunoblots. PCR amplification of a 1 kb region in Cyp2a-4/5-mRNA-derived cDNA, followed by cutting at the diagnostic PstI site, showed that most of the steady-state mRNA consisted of Cyp2a-5, which is also the form most affected by pyrazole. Nuclear run-off analysis revealed no increase in the transcription rate of Cyp2a-4/5 after pyrazole or cobalt treatment, whereas a 2-3-fold increase occurred after phenobarbital pretreatment in B6 mice. Together with previous reports [Aida& Negishi (1991) Biochemistry 30, 8041-8045], the current data suggest that both pyrazole and cobalt increase COH catalytic activity by affecting Cyp2a-5 by post-transcriptional mechanisms in mice.
Coumarin 7-hydroxylase (COH) activity is catalyzed by the Cyp2a-5 gene product (CYP2A5 enzyme) in mice. Mouse hepatic CYP2A5 expression is often increased in conditions in which other P450 forms are repressed, e.g. after the administration of heavy metals and other toxic agents known to affect cellular heme balance. In this study, the effect of various porphyrinogenic chemicals on the expression CYP2A5 and the key enzymes in heme metabolism was studied. Administration of single doses of griseofulvin (1000 mg/kg), thioacetamide (10 mg/kg) and aminotriazole (1000 mg/kg) to DBA/2 and C57BL/6 mice produced up to 10-fold increases in hepatic COH catalytic activity. Dramatic, up to 130-fold increases in response to the inducers was observed in the amount of CYP2A5 steady-state mRNA. The mRNA contents of aminolevulinate synthase, ferrochelatase and heme oxygenase were also increased to a variable extent, possibly reflecting feed-back regulatory mechanisms. In D2 mice the CYP2A5 inducing effect of aminotriazole and thioacetamide, but not that of griseofulvin, pyrazole and phenobarbital, was abolished by exogenously administered heme arginate. In the B6 strain heme arginate treatment increased CYP2A5 expression but it did not affect the induction caused by porphyrinogenic agents. These results show that porphyrinogenic agents act as efficient inducers of CYP2A5, and suggest that regulation of the transcription of the Cyp2a-5 gene could in some instances involve heme-sensitive factors.
All cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes contain heme as a prosthetic group. In contrast to other CYP enzymes, murine CYP 2 A 5 is upregulated in vivo by several agents that disturb cellular heme balance. To test the hypothesis that porphyrinogenic agents have the common feature of being able to increase CYP 2 A 5 expression, mouse liver primary hepatocytes were exposed to various porphyrinogenic chemicals and changes in CYP 2 A 5 catalytic activity and levels of mRNA were monitored. Phenobarbital increased hepatic CYP 2 A 5-mediated coumarin 7-hydroxylase (COH) activity (13.2-fold) and the amount of CYP 2 A 5 steady-state mRNA (10.6-fold). Hepatocyte COH activity was increased also by the ferrochelatase inhibitor griseofulvin and the protoporphyrinogen oxidase inhibitor acifluorfen (about 9-fold induction). Of these inducers, only phenobarbital affected CYP 1 A 12 and CYP 2 B 10 expression. In contrast, many other porphyrinogenic agents such as cobalt, 2,2,4-trimethyl-1,2-dihydroquinoline (TMDQ), 1-[4-(3-acetyl-2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)-2,6-cyclohexanedionyl]-O-eth yl propionaldehyde oxime (ATMP), aminotriazole, and thioacetamide either decreased or had no effect on CYP 2 A 5. The increases in COH activity and CYP 2 A 5 mRNA were unaffected by combined treatment with the inducers and heme arginate, suggesting that heme is not a regulator of CYP 2 A 5 induction. Treatment with actinomycin D totally abolished both constitutive CYP 2 A 5 expression and its inducibility, suggesting that a transcriptional component is involved. These data suggest that, in mouse primary hepatocytes, CYP 2 A 5 induction is not a universal response to disturbed cellular heme biosynthesis.
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