title: Mechanism of 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene-induced immunotoxicity: role of metabolic activation at the target organ.
abstract: The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA), is an immunosuppressor as well as a potent organ-specific carcinogen. To understand the organ-specific mechanism of DMBA-induced lymphoid toxicity, aryl hydrocarbon-nonresponsive mice and microsomal epoxide hydrolase (mEH)-null mice were analyzed. DMBA caused a dose-dependent decrease in spleen weights, but not the thymus weights in aryl hydrocarbon-nonresponsive mice. On the other hand, both spleen and thymus weights were decreased to less than a half in wild-type mice exposed to 30 mg/kg of DMBA. In contrast, no decrease was detected in spleen weights of mEH-null mice exposed to up to 100 mg/kg of DMBA, while thymus weights were markedly lower. Responses to the B-cell mitogen lipopolysaccharide and to T-cell mitogen phytohemagglutinin were nearly completely abolished in splenocytes isolated from wild-type mice treated with 100 mg/kg of DMBA. These responses were decreased, but maintained in splenocytes isolated from mEH-null mice treated with DMBA. Two DMBA metabolites dependent on mEH including DMBA-3,4-diol were detected in an HPLC chromatogram of spleen microsomes isolated from wild-type mice, but not those from mEH-null mice. These results suggest the involvement of mEH in splenic activation of DMBA for immunotoxicity and the difference for the DMBA-induced lymphoid toxicity between spleen and thymus.
authors.affiliation: Division of Drug Metabolism and Molecular Toxicology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. miyata@mail.pharm.tohoku.ac.jp
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miyata
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Furukawa
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamazoe
mesh_terms: D015127:9,10-Dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene / Q000633:toxicity*; D000818:Animals; D001711:Biotransformation; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D003577:Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System / Q000378:metabolism; D004851:Epoxide Hydrolases / Q000378:metabolism; D008099:Liver / Q000201:enzymology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009929:Organ Size; D013154:Spleen / Q000201:enzymology; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D015127:9,10-Dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene; D003577:Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System; D004851:Epoxide Hydrolases