Gail M. Nelson

Toxicity Profiles in Mice Treated with Hepatotumorigenic and Non-Hepatotumorigenic Triazole Conazole Fungicides: Propiconazole, Triadimefon, and Myclobutanil

Conazoles comprise a class of fungicides used in agriculture and as pharmaceutical products. The fungicidal properties of conazoles are due to their inhibition of ergosterol biosynthesis. Certain conazoles are tumorigenic in rodents; both propiconazole and triadimefon are hepatotoxic and hepatotumorigenic in mice, while myclobutanil is not a mouse liver tumorigen. As a component of a large-scale study aimed at determining the mode(s) of action for tumorigenic conazoles, we report the results from comparative evaluations of liver and body weights, liver histopathology, cell proliferation, cytochrome P450 (CYP) activity, and serum cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein and triglyceride levels after exposure to propiconazole, triadimefon, and myclobutanil. Male CD-1 mice were treated in the feed for 4, 30, or 90 days with triadimefon (0, 100, 500, or 1800 ppm), propiconazole (0, 100, 500, or 2500 ppm) or myclobutanil (0, 100, 500, or 2000 ppm). Alkoxyresorufin O-dealkylation (AROD) assays indicated that all 3 chemicals induced similar patterns of dose-related increases in metabolizing enzyme activity. PROD activities exceeded those of MROD, and EROD with propiconazole inducing the highest activities of PROD. Mice had similar patterns of dose-dependent increases in hepatocyte hypertrophy after exposure to the 3 conazoles. High-dose exposures to propiconazole and myclobutanil, but not triadimefon, were associated with early (4 days) increases in cell proliferation. All the chemicals at high doses reduced serum cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels at 30 days of treatment, while only triadimefon had this effect at 4 days of treatment and only myclobutanil and propiconazole at 90 days of treatment. Overall, the tumorigenic and nontumorigenic conazoles induced similar effects on mouse liver CYP enzyme activities and pathology. There was no specific pattern of tissue responses that could consistently be used to differentiate the tumorigenic conazoles, propiconazole, and triadimefon, from the nontumorigenic myclobutanil. These findings serve to anchor other transcriptional profiling studies aimed at probing differences in key events and modes of action for tumorigenic and nontumorigenic conazoles.

Toxicity Profiles in Rats Treated with Tumorigenic and Nontumorigenic Triazole Conazole Fungicides: Propiconazole, Triadimefon, and Myclobutanil

Conazoles are a class of azole based fungicides used in agriculture and as pharmaceutical products. They have a common mode of antifungal action through inhibition of ergosterol biosynthesis. Some members of this class have been shown to be hepatotoxic and will induce mouse hepatocellular tumors and/or rat thyroid follicular cell tumors. The particular mode of toxic and tumorigenic action for these compounds is not known, however it has been proposed that triadimefon-induced rat thyroid tumors arise through the specific mechanism of increased TSH. The present study was designed to identify commonalities of effects across the different conazoles and to determine unique features of the tissue responses that suggest a toxicity pathway and a mode of action for the observed thyroid response for triadimefon. Male Wistar/Han rats were treated with triadimefon (100, 500, 1800 ppm), propiconazole (100, 500, 2500 ppm), or myclobutanil (100, 500, 2000 ppm) in feed for 4, 30, or 90 days. The rats were evaluated for clinical signs, body and liver weight, histopathology of thyroid and liver, hepatic metabolizing enzyme activity, and serum T3, T4, TSH, and cholesterol levels. There was a dose-dependent increase in liver weight but not body weight for all treatments. The indication of cytochrome induction, pentoxyresorufin O-dealkylation (PROD) activity, had a dose-related increase at all time points for all conazoles. Uridine diphopho-glucuronosyl transferase (UDPGT), the T4 metabolizing enzyme measured as glucuronidation of 1-naphthol, was induced to the same extent after 30 and 90 days for all three conazoles. Livers from all high dose treated rats had centrilobular hepatocyte hypertrophy after 4 days, while only triadimefon and propiconazole treated rats had hepatocyte hypertrophy after 30 days, and only triadimefon treated rats had hepatocyte hypertrophy after 90 days. Thyroid follicular cell hypertrophy, increased follicular cell proliferation, and colloid depletion were present only after 30 days in rats treated with the high dose of triadimefon. A dose-dependent decrease in T4 was present after 4 days with all 3 compounds but only the high doses of propiconazole and triadimefon produced decreased T4 after 30 days. T3 was decreased after high-dose triadimefon after 4 days and in a dose-dependent manner for all compounds after 30 days. Thyroid hormone levels did not differ from control values after 90 days and TSH was not increased in any exposure group. A unique pattern of toxic responses was not identified for each conazole and the hypothesized mode of action for triadimefon-induced thyroid gland tumors was not supported by the data.

Dose response evaluation of gene expression profiles in the skin of K6/ODC mice exposed to sodium arsenite

Chronic drinking water exposure to inorganic arsenic and its metabolites increases tumor frequency in the skin of K6/ODC transgenic mice. To identify potential biomarkers and modes of action for this skin tumorigenicity, we characterized gene expression profiles from analysis of K6/ODC mice administered 0, 0.05, 0.25, 1.0 and 10 ppm sodium arsenite in their drinking water for 4 weeks. Following exposure, total RNA was isolated from mouse skin and processed to biotin-labeled cRNA for microarray analyses. Skin gene expression was analyzed with Affymetrix Mouse Genome 430A 2.0 GeneChips, and pathway analysis was conducted with DAVID (NIH), Ingenuity Systems and MetaCores GeneGo. Differential expression of several key genes was verified through qPCR. Only the highest dose (10 ppm) resulted in significantly altered KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathways, including MAPK, regulation of actin cytoskeleton, Wnt, Jak-Stat, Tight junction, Toll-like, phosphatidylinositol and insulin signaling pathways. Approximately 20 genes exhibited a dose response, including several genes known to be associated with carcinogenesis or tumor progression including cyclin D1, CLIC4, Ephrin A1, STAT3 and DNA methyltransferase 3a. Although transcription changes in all identified genes have not previously been linked to arsenic carcinogenesis, their association with carcinogenesis in other systems suggests that these genes may play a role in the early stages of arsenic-induced skin carcinogenesis and can be considered potential biomarkers.

Impact of life stage and duration of exposure on arsenic-induced proliferative lesions and neoplasia in C3H mice

Epidemiological studies suggest that chronic exposure to inorganic arsenic is associated with cancer of the skin, urinary bladder and lung as well as the kidney and liver. Previous experimental studies have demonstrated increased incidence of liver, lung, ovary, and uterine tumors in mice exposed to 85 ppm (approximately 8 mg/kg) inorganic arsenic during gestation. To further characterize age susceptibility to arsenic carcinogenesis we administered 85 ppm inorganic arsenic in drinking water to C3H mice during gestation, prior to pubescence and post-pubescence to compare proliferative lesion and tumor outcomes over a one-year exposure period. Inorganic arsenic significantly increased the incidence of hyperplasia in urinary bladder (48%) and oviduct (36%) in female mice exposed prior to pubescence (beginning on postnatal day 21 and extending through one year) compared to control mice (19 and 5%, respectively). Arsenic also increased the incidence of hyperplasia in urinary bladder (28%) of female mice continuously exposed to arsenic (beginning on gestation day 8 and extending though one year) compared to gestation only exposed mice (0%). In contrast, inorganic arsenic significantly decreased the incidence of tumors in liver (0%) and adrenal glands (0%) of male mice continuously exposed from gestation through one year, as compared to levels in control (30 and 65%, respectively) and gestation only (33 and 55%, respectively) exposed mice. Together, these results suggest that continuous inorganic arsenic exposure at 85 ppm from gestation through one year increases the incidence and severity of urogenital proliferative lesions in female mice and decreases the incidence of liver and adrenal tumors in male mice. The paradoxical nature of these effects may be related to altered lipid metabolism, the effective dose in each target organ, and/or the shorter one-year observational period.

Oncogene expression profiles in K6/ODC mouse skin and papillomas following a chronic exposure to monomethylarsonous acid†

We have previously observed that a chronic drinking water exposure to monomethylarsonous acid [MMA(III)], a cellular metabolite of inorganic arsenic, increases tumor frequency in the skin of keratin VI/ornithine decarboxylase (K6/ODC) transgenic mice. To characterize gene expression profiles predictive of MMA(III) exposure and mode of action of carcinogenesis, skin and papilloma RNA was isolated from K6/ODC mice administered 0, 10, 50, and 100 ppm MMA(III) in their drinking water for 26 weeks. Following RNA processing, the resulting cRNA samples were hybridized to Affymetrix Mouse Genome 430A 2.0 GeneChips®. Micoarray data were normalized using MAS 5.0 software, and statistically significant genes were determined using a regularized t‐test. Significant changes in bZIP transcription factors, MAP kinase signaling, chromatin remodeling, and lipid metabolism gene transcripts were observed following MMA(III) exposure as determined using the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery 2.1 (DAVID) (Dennis et al., Genome Biol 2003;4(5):P3). MMA(III) also caused dose‐dependent changes in multiple Rho guanine nucleotide triphosphatase (GTPase) and cell cycle related genes as determined by linear regression analyses. Observed increases in transcript abundance of Fosl1, Myc, and Rac1 oncogenes in mouse skin support previous reports on the inducibility of these oncogenes in response to arsenic and support the relevance of these genomic changes in skin tumor induction in the K6/ODC mouse model.

Survival of environmental microbial agents in CD-1 mice following oral exposure

Microbial agents have many applications in the environment and are replacing chemicals and engineering processes due to improved efficacy, reduced toxicity, and less cost. Typically, innocuous species are used, however, unless the products include genetically engineered microorganisms, potential health effects are not scrutinized. In order to investigate possible health concerns, four surrogate microbial agents were studied in vivo and in vitro

Procedure and Key Optimization Strategies for an Automated Capillary Electrophoretic-based Immunoassay Method

New technologies that utilize capillary-based immunoassays promise faster and more quantitative protein assessment compared to traditional immunoassays. However, similar to other antibody-based protein assays, optimization of capillary-based immunoassay parameters, such as protein concentration, antibody dilution, and exposure time is an important prerequisite to the generation of meaningful and reliable data. Measurements must fall within the linear range of the assay where changes in signal are directly proportional to changes in lysate concentration. The process of choosing appropriate lysate concentrations, antibody dilutions, and exposure times in the human bronchial epithelial cell line, BEAS-2B, is demonstrated here. Assay linearity is shown over a range of whole cell extract protein concentrations with p53 and α-tubulin antibodies. An example of signal burnout is seen at the highest concentrations with long exposure times, and an α-tubulin antibody dilution curve is shown demonstrating saturation. In addition, example experimental results are reported for doxorubicin-treated cells using optimized parameters.

Abstract 5226: Liver and blood miRNA alterations as putative biomarkers of hepatotoxic response to short-term furan exposure in mice

Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA Epigenetic miRNA-based changes measured in accessible matrices may serve as useful biomarkers of environmental exposures and human health effects. We investigated miRNA profiles following short-term exposure to a known cytotoxic hepatocarcinogen, furan. We measured global liver and blood miRNA changes in female B3C6F1 mice exposed to furan for 3 weeks p.o. at daily doses of 0, 1, 2, 4, and 8 mg/kg. Small RNA was extracted from frozen samples using Exiqon miRCURY RNA Isolation kit and quantified by Qubit. RNA quality was checked by Nanodrop and Bioanalyzer, and liver miRNA were measured by miRNA-seq on the Illumina HiScanSQ platform. Blood miRNA were measured from pooled RNA samples by Affymetrix GeneChip v3 microarrays. In the liver, the 1, 2, 4, and 8 mg/kg doses resulted in 0, 10, 17 and 14 differentially altered miRNAs, respectively (>1.5-fold; B-H corrected p-value<0.05). The majority of miRNA changes in the low-dose exposure group (2mg/kg) were not seen with other treatments (7 of 10 miRNA). Conversely, most altered miRNA observed with high-dose (4 or 8 mg/kg) exposures were shared (10 miRNA), indicating different miRNA-mediated pathways for non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic furan exposures. Using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA), liver miRNAs altered by the carcinogenic doses of furan (4 and 8 mg/kg) significantly enriched (B-H corrected p-value<0.05) functions related to cellular development, growth and proliferation, movement, cell cycle, death and survival; other categories identified by IPA were related to hepatotoxicity, liver inflammation, and cancer. Using predicted miRNA-mRNA interactions, 68 mRNAs were expressed in a contrasting pattern to miRNA expression (upregulated miRNA/downregulated mRNAs and vice versa). Associated mRNAs showed enrichment of pathways similar to miRNAs. Measurements in whole blood samples indicated that 6 out of the 21 miRNAs altered by the carcinogenic doses of furan were also altered in the blood (4 in the same direction). Blood miRNAs included mmu-miR-34a, -146b, -183, -5099 (upregulated), and -10a, -99b (downregulated). Results demonstrate distinctive miRNA profiles in rodent liver for carcinogenic doses of furan with corresponding changes for a subset of liver miRNAs in blood. Our findings support ongoing efforts to identify novel miRNA biomarkers in accessible matrices related to environmental health effects. This abstract does not necessarily reflect the policy of the US EPA. Citation Format: Brian Norris Chorley, Gail Nelson, Gleta Carswell, Holly Mortensen, James Crooks, William Ward, Charles Wood, Anna F. Jackson, Carole Yauk, Les Recio, Susan Hester. Liver and blood miRNA alterations as putative biomarkers of hepatotoxic response to short-term furan exposure in mice. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 5226. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-5226