Karen Hollanders

Phenotypic and biomarker evaluation of zebrafish larvae as an alternative model to predict mammalian hepatotoxicity

Zebrafish phenotypic assays have shown promise to assess human hepatotoxicity, though scoring of liver morphology remains subjective and difficult to standardize. Liver toxicity in zebrafish larvae at 5 days was assessed using gene expression as the biomarker approach, complementary to phenotypic analysis and analytical data on compound uptake. This approach aimed to contribute to improved hepatotoxicity prediction, with the goal of identifying biomarker(s) as a step towards the development of transgenic models for prioritization. Morphological effects of hepatotoxic compounds (acetaminophen, amiodarone, coumarin, methapyrilene and myclobutanil) and saccharin as the negative control were assessed after exposure in zebrafish larvae. The hepatotoxic compounds induced the expected zebrafish liver degeneration or changes in size, whereas saccharin did not have any phenotypic adverse effect. Analytical methods based on liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry were optimized to measure stability of selected compounds in exposure medium and internal concentration in larvae. All compounds were stable, except amiodarone for which precipitation was observed. There was a wide variation between the levels of compound in the zebrafish larvae with a higher uptake of amiodarone, methapyrilene and myclobutanil. Detection of hepatocyte markers (CP, CYP3A65, GC and TF) was accomplished by in situ hybridization of larvae to coumarin and myclobutanil and confirmed by real‐time reverse transcription–quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Experiments showed decreased expression of all markers. Next, other liver‐specific biomarkers (i.e. FABP10a and NR1H4) and apoptosis (i.e. CASP‐3 A and TP53) or cytochrome P450‐related (CYP2K19) and oxidoreductase activity‐related (ZGC163022) genes, were screened. Links between basic mechanisms of liver injury and results of biomarker responses are described. Copyright

Cultured human peripheral blood mononuclear cells alter their gene expression when challenged with endocrine-disrupting chemicals

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) have the potential to interfere with the hormonal system and may negatively influence human health. Microarray analysis was used in this study to investigate differential gene expression in human peripheral blood cells (PBMCs) after in vitro exposure to EDCs. PBMCs, isolated from blood samples of four male and four female healthy individuals, were exposed in vitro for 18h to either a dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB126, 1μM), a non-dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB153, 10μM), a brominated flame retardant (BDE47, 10μM), a perfluorinated alkyl acid (PFOA, 10μM) or bisphenol (BPA, 10μM). ANOVA analysis revealed a significant change in the expression of 862 genes as a result of EDC exposure. The gender of the donors did not affect gene expression. Hierarchical cluster analysis created three groups and clustered: (1) PCB126-exposed samples, (2) PCB153 and BDE47, (3) PFOA and BPA. The number of differentially expressed genes varied per compound and ranged from 60 to 192 when using fold change and multiplicity corrected p-value as filtering criteria. Exposure to PCB126 induced the AhR signaling pathway. BDE47 and PCB153 are known to disrupt thyroid metabolism and exposure influenced the expression of the nuclear receptors PPARγ and ESR2, respectively. BPA and PFOA did not induce significant changes in the expression of known nuclear receptors. Overall, each compound produced a unique gene expression signature affecting pathways and GO processes linked to metabolism and inflammation. Twenty-nine genes were significantly altered in expression under all experimental conditions. Six of these genes (HSD11B2, MMP11, ADIPOQ, CEL, DUSP9 and TUB) could be associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome. In conclusion, microarray analysis identified that PBMCs altered their gene expression response in vitro when challenged with EDCs. Our screening approach has identified a number of gene candidates that warrant further study.

Transcriptomics identifies differences between ultrapure non-dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxin-like PCB126 in cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) remain ubiquitously present in human lipids despite the ban on their production and use. Their presence can be chemically monitored in peripheral blood samples of the general population. We tested whether in vitro exposure to different PCB congeners induced different gene expression profiles in peripheral blood cells. We have isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from whole blood of 8 healthy individuals and exposed these cells in vitro to individual non-dioxin-like (NDL)-PCB congeners (PCB52, 138 or 180; 10μM) or dioxin-like (DL)-PCB congener PCB126 (1μM) during 18h. Differential gene expression response was measured using Agilent whole-human genome microarrays. Two-way ANOVA analysis of the data showed that both gender and PCB exposure are important factors influencing gene expression responses in blood cells. Hierarchical cluster analysis of genes influenced by PCB exposure, revealed that DL-PCB126 induced a different gene expression response compared to the NDL-PCBs. Biological interpretation of the results revealed that exposure to PCB126 induced the AhR signaling pathway, whereas the induction of nuclear receptor pathways by the NDL-PCBs was limited in blood cells. Nevertheless, molecular responses of blood cells to individual PCB congeners revealed significantly expressed genes that play a role in biological functions and processes known to be affected by PCB exposure in vivo. Observed gene expression changes in this in vitro model were found to be related to hepatotoxicity, immune and inflammatory response and disturbance of lipid and cholesterol homeostasis.

Targeted resequencing of HIV variants by microarray thermodynamics

Within a single infected individual, a virus population can have a high genomic variability. In the case of HIV, several mutations can be present even in a small genomic window of 20-30 nucleotides. For diagnostics purposes, it is often needed to resequence genomic subsets where crucial mutations are known to occur. In this article, we address this issue using DNA microarrays and inputs from hybridization thermodynamics. Hybridization signals from multiple probes are analysed, including strong signals from perfectly matching (PM) probes and a large amount of weaker cross-hybridization signals from mismatching (MM) probes. The latter are crucial in the data analysis. Seven coded clinical samples (HIV-1) are analyzed, and the microarray results are in full concordance with Sanger sequencing data. Moreover, the thermodynamic analysis of microarray signals resolves inherent ambiguities in Sanger data of mixed samples and provides additional clinically relevant information. These results show the reliability and added value of DNA microarrays for point-of-care diagnostic purposes.

CON4EI: SkinEthic™ Human Corneal Epithelium Eye Irritation Test (SkinEthic™ HCE EIT) for hazard identification and labelling of eye irritating chemicals

Assessment of ocular irritancy is an international regulatory requirement and a necessary step in the safety evaluation of industrial and consumer products. Although a number of in vitro ocular irritation assays exist, none are capable of fully categorizing chemicals as a stand-alone assay. Therefore, the CEFIC-LRI-AIMT6-VITO CON4EI (CONsortium for in vitro Eye Irritation testing strategy) project was developed with the goal of assessing the reliability of eight in vitro/alternative test methods as well as establishing an optimal tiered-testing strategy. One of the in vitro assays selected was the validated SkinEthic™ Human Corneal Epithelium Eye Irritation Test method (SkinEthic™ HCE EIT). The SkinEthic™ HCE EIT has already demonstrated its capacity to correctly identify chemicals (both substances and mixtures) not requiring classification and labelling for eye irritation or serious eye damage (No Category). The goal of this study was to evaluate the performance of the SkinEthic™ HCE EIT test method in terms of the important in vivo drivers of classification. For the performance with respect to the drivers all in vivo Cat 1 and No Cat chemicals were 100% correctly identified. For Cat 2 chemicals the liquids and the solids had a sensitivity of 100% and 85.7%, respectively. For the SkinEthic™ HCE EIT test method, 100% concordance in predictions (No Cat versus No prediction can be made) between the two participating laboratories was obtained. The accuracy of the SkinEthic™ HCE EIT was 97.5% with 100% sensitivity and 96.9% specificity. The SkinEthic™ HCE EIT confirms its excellent results of the validation studies.

Peripheral blood collection: the first step towards gene expression profiling

Abstract A crucial challenge for gene expression analysis in human biomonitoring studies on whole blood samples is rapid sample handling and mRNA stabilization. This study was designed to evaluate the impact of short bench times (less than 30 min) on yield, quality and gene expression of mRNA in the presence of different stabilization buffers (TempusTM Blood RNA tube and RNAlater® Stabilization Reagent). Microarray analyzes showed significant changes over short periods of time in expression of a considerate part of the transcriptome (2356 genes) with a prominent role for NFкB-, cancer- and glucocorticoid-mediated networks, and specifically interleukin-8 (IL-8). These findings suggest that even short bench times affect gene expression, requiring to carry out blood collection in a strictly standardized way.