Pierre Kremers

CYP1A1 T3801 C polymorphism and lung cancer: A pooled analysis of 2,451 cases and 3,358 controls

CYP1A1 is involved in the metabolism of benzopyrene, a suspected lung carcinogen; it is therefore conceivable that genetically determined variations in its activity modify individual susceptibility to lung cancer. The role of the CYP1A1 MspI polymorphism in lung cancer has been widely studied but has not been fully clarified. We have included 2,451 cases and 3,358 controls in a pooled analysis of 22 case‐control studies on CYP1A1 and lung cancer risk. We found a clear association between the CYP1A1 homozygous MspI restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and lung cancer risk in Caucasians (age‐ and gender‐adjusted odds ratio = 2.36; 95% confidence interval 1.16–4.81); other associations were weaker or not statistically significant. The association with the homozygous variant was equally strong for squamous cell carcinomas and adenocarcinomas among Caucasians. We analyzed the risk by duration of smoking: for Caucasian subjects with the MspI RFLP combined variants (homozygotes plus heterozygotes), the increase in the risk of lung cancer was steeper than among the individuals with the homozygous reference allele. Our analysis suggests that Caucasians with homozygous variant CYP1A1 polymorphism have a higher risk of lung cancer. The data were more consistent among Caucasians, with a strong association between the homozygous variant in both squamous cell carcinomas and adenocarcinomas, and a stronger association in men than in women. The analyses were more inconsistent and failed to reach statistical significance in Asians. This observation might be due to design specificities or unknown effect modifiers in the Asian studies.

Expression of drug-metabolizing enzymes and P-170 glycoprotein in colorectal carcinoma and normal mucosa

Resistance to chemotherapy is a significant problem in the treatment of colorectal carcinomas. To obtain insight into the mechanism of drug resistance, the expression of P-170 glycoprotein and biotransformation enzymes that are potentially able to contribute to drug resistance were investigated in paired samples of normal mucosa and tumors from 24 patients with colorectal cancer. In the tumors, glutathione S-transferase (GST) enzyme activity and content of GST-pi and P-170 glycoprotein were increased significantly compared with normal mucosa (P less than 0.03, P less than 0.003, and P less than 0.02, respectively). In contrast, GST-alpha and -mu, present in minor amounts compared with GST-pi, were downregulated in the tumor. Cytochrome P-450(4,5,6) and UDP-glucuronyltransferase (towards 4-nitrophenol and bilirubin) levels were significantly lower in the tumors (P less than 0.0001 and P less than 0.0002, respectively). Because decreased expression of cytochrome P-450 and increased levels of GST-pi and the P-170 glycoprotein have been implicated in (multi)drug resistance, these findings strongly suggest that in colorectal tumors the inherent resistance is multifactorial. Research to overcome this resistance should therefore be directed toward a combined treatment that eliminates all of these different mechanisms.

Cytochromes P-450 in the intestinal mucosa of man

With monoclonal antibodies against cytochrome P-450(5) and P-450(4,5,6), 52 and 54 kDa bands are visualized in microsomes from proximal as well as distal human small intestine. These bands most probably correspond to cytochrome P-450(5) and P-450(4), respectively. This and several other cytochrome P-450 related proteins are present in hepatic microsomes from the same patient. In both hepatic and intestinal microsomes from this patient cytochrome P-450(8) is hardly detectable. In contrast to the small intestine and liver, large intestinal tissue from several other patients does not contain cytochrome P-450(5). Here the 54 kDa isoenzyme, possibly cytochrome P-450(4), is most prominent. Earlier we found a higher content of total cytochrome P-450 in the proximal as compared to the distal small intestine. A similar distribution is now found with regard to aldrin epoxidase activity.

Monoclonal antibodies against human liver cytochrome P-450

Monoclonal hybridomas which produce antibodies against human liver microsomal cytochrome P-450 were developed. Three similar hybridomas produced antibodies which recognized an epitope specific to a family of human P-450 isozymes (P-450(5)). This epitope was also present on cytochrome P-450 PCN-E (pregnenolone-16 alpha-carbonitrile induced) from rat liver microsomes, but this isozyme differed from the human P-450(5) by its molecular weight. These antibodies enabled us to quantify cytochrome P-450(5) in human liver microsomes and to demonstrate an important quantitative polymorphism in the human liver monooxygenase system.

Correlation between P450 CYP1A1 inducibility, MspI genotype and lung cancer incidence

The aim of this study was to verify a possible correlation between CYP1A1 induction, MspI genotype and lung cancer incidence. A case-control study was performed on 48 lung cancer patients and 81 healthy subjects to test the existence of a correlation, within a European population. The hyperinducible group exhibited a significantly higher risk of lung cancer (odds ratio = 3.41; P = 0.036), especially for adenocarcinoma (odds ratio = 5.29; P = 0.033). In contrast with the situation observed in Asian populations, the frequency of the M2 allele did not differ significantly in the total lung cancer population (7.82%) and the group of healthy subjects (10.71%). The median inducibility value was slightly higher among cancer patients with one or two M2 alleles than among patients homozygous for the wild-type allele (P = 0.09). However, the percentage of individuals possessing at least one mutated allele was not significantly higher among hyperinducible patients (37.5%) than among non-hyperinducible patients (16.0%). No significant correlation could be found between M2 allele and lung cancer or between M2 allele and CYP1A1 inducibility; the only positive correlation found was between CYP1A1 hyperinducibility and lung cancer incidence. Our observations do not support the view that the presence of the M2 allele at the MspI site of the CYP1A1 gene constitutes a significant lung cancer risk in Caucasians.

CYP1A1, GSTM1 and GSTT1 polymorphisms and lung cancer: a pooled analysis of gene–gene interactions

Gene–environment interactions have been extensively studied in lung cancer. It is likely that several genetic polymorphisms cooperate in increasing the individual risk. Therefore, the study of gene–gene interactions might be important to identify high-susceptibility subgroups. GSEC is an initiative aimed at collecting available data sets on metabolic polymorphisms and the risks of cancer at several sites and performing pooled analyses of the original data. Authors of published papers have provided original data sets. The present paper refers to gene–gene interactions in lung cancer and considers three polymorphisms in three metabolic genes: CYP1A1, GSTM1 and GSTT1. The present analyses compare the gene–gene interactions of the CYP1A1*2A, GSTM1 and GSTT1 polymorphisms from studies on lung cancer conducted in Europe and the USA between 1991 and 2000. Only Caucasians have been included. The data set includes 1466 cases and 1488 controls. The only clear-cut association was found with CYP1A1*2A. This association remained unchanged after stratification by polymorphisms in other genes (with an odds ratio [OR] of approximately 2.5), except when interaction with GSTM1 was considered. When the OR for CYP1A1*2A was stratified according to the GSTM1 genotype, the OR was increased only among the subjects who had the null (homozygous deletion) GSTM1 genotype (OR=2.8, 95% CI=0.9–8.4). The odds ratio for the interactive term (CYP1A1*2A by GSTM1) in logistic regression was 2.7 (95% CI=0.5–15.3). An association between lung cancer and the homozygous CYP1A1*2A genotype is confirmed. An apparent and biologically plausible interaction is suggested between this genotype and GSTM1.

Relation between inducibility of CYP1A1, GSTM1 and lung cancer in a French population.

Smoking is the principal cause of lung cancer. However, not all smokers will develop this disease. Individual susceptibility to chemically induced cancer may be explained in part by genetic differences in the activation and detoxification of procarcinogens. The activation phase of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) metabolism is governed by the enzyme CYP1A1, induced by PAH when it enters the body. The extent to which PAH induces CYP1A1 activity varies greatly from one subject to another. CYP1A1 inducibility has long been associated, although inconsistently, with an increased risk of lung cancer. In 1982, Kouri corroborated Kellermans results with a new method for measuring inducibility, but few studies have reported using this method. The glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are involved in the detoxification phase of PAH, and the allelic deletion of GSTM1 has been also associated with an increased risk of lung cancer. We conducted a case-control study to examine the risk of lung cancer related, separately and together, to CYP1A1 inducibility, GSTM1 polymorphism and cigarette smoking in a French population. The 611 subjects were 310 incident lung cancer cases and 301 hospital control subjects. We were able to constitute a DNA bank for 552 subjects (89.5%) and gather detailed information on smoking history for all of them. Inducibility could be measured for 195 cases and 183 control subjects. Results for GSTM1 polymorphism concern 247 cases and 254 control subjects. GSTM1 polymorphism and inducibility could both be assessed for 179 cases and 166 control subjects. The odds ratio related to inducibility was 1.7 [1.0-3.0] for medium and 3.1 (1.3-7.4) for hyper inducers. The association with GSTM1 was 1.6 (1.0-2.6). With a reference category of subjects who were both low inducers and GSTM1(+), we found an odds ratio for lung cancer of 8.1 (2-31) for the subjects with both risk factors [i.e. GSTM1(-) and hyper inducers]. Our data did not reveal evidence of interaction between smoking and inducibility. On the other hand, we found an interaction of 3.6 (0.6-21) between inducibility and GSTM1.

Purification of a new cytochrome P-450 from human liver microsomes.

Using a classical methodology of purification consisting of three chromatographic steps (Octyl-Sepharose, DEAE-cellulose, CM-cellulose) we have purified a new cytochrome P-450 from human liver microsomes. It was called cytochrome P-450(9). It has been proven to be different from all precedingly purified human liver microsomal cytochrome P-450 isozymes by its immunological and electrophoretical properties. It does not cross-react with any rat liver cytochrome P-450 and anti-cytochrome P-450(9) does not recognize rat liver microsomes; thus this cytochrome P-450(9) is specific to humans. This cytochrome P-450 isozyme exists in low amounts in human liver microsomes and exhibits an important quantitative polymorphism. In reconstituted system, cytochrome P-450(9) is able to hydroxylate all substrates tested but is not specific of any; its exact role in xenobiotic metabolism in man remains to be elucidated.

Regulation of CYP4A1 and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha expression by interleukin Iβ, interleukhv 6, and dexamethasone in cultured fetal rat hepatocytes

The CYP4A1 isoenzyme induced in rodents by peroxisome proliferators is known to be repressed at a pretranslational level by interferon. Interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) also reduces CYP4A1-related 12-laurate hydroxylase activity in cultured fetal rat hepatocytes after induction by clofibric acid. In this fetal hepatocyte model, IL-1beta and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were tested for their ability to reduce 12-laurate hydroxylase activity, CYP4A1 apoprotein content, and the CYP4A1 mRNA level. IL-1beta and IL-6 strongly diminished CYP4A1 activity and apoprotein and mRNA levels in a dose- and time-dependent manner. CYP4A1 expression is thus down-regulated at a pretranslational level by these cytokines. As it has been shown that the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPAR alpha) mediates the induction of the CYP4A1 gene by a peroxisome proliferator, the capacity of IL-1beta or IL-6 to modulate the PPAR alpha mRNA level was tested. It was found that IL-1beta and IL-6 both repress the induction of PPAR alpha expression exerted by the combined action of clofibric acid and dexamethasone. However, even at the highest concentration (10 ng/mL) tested for both cytokines, IL-1beta as well as IL-6 failed to abolish the induction of CYP4A1 by dexamethasone. The mechanism of the protective effect of the synthetic glucocorticoid on CYP4A1 repression by interleukins is discussed.

17α-hydroxylase and testosterone biosynthesis in rat testes

Abstract The biological properties of 17α-hydroxylase, the first enzyme in the conversion of C 21 to C 19 steroids, were studied in relation to the plasma level of testosterone in order to approach the problem of the regulation of the hormones biosynthesis. The 17α-hydroxylase specific activity varies with the age of the animals and reaches a maximum 24 h after the plasma FSH peak, i.e. at the 30th day of life. The plasma testosterone concentration begins to rise during the following days to reach a plateau about 10 days after the FSH peak. A single administration of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) depressed the 17α-hydroxylase activity, but induced a significant rise in the plasma testosterone concentration. A more prolonged treatment with gonadotropins (200 IU/day/for 5 days) also enhanced the testicular 17α-hydroxylase activity. On the other hand, administration of testosterone, even in rats pretreated with hCG, reduced 17α-hydroxylase activity. This was not the case in hypophysectomized rats. Estrogen administration (10μg/kg/day) also reduces the enzymatic activity. This effect is not mediated by the hypothalamo-hypophysial axis, but results from a direct action at the testicular level on enzyme biosynthesis. Our results seem to indicate that steroid-17α-hydroxylase is not an important regulatory step in testosterone biosynthesis.