PPARalpha in peroxisome proliferation: molecular characterisation and species differences

Choudhury, Munim (2000) PPARalpha in peroxisome proliferation: molecular characterisation and species differences. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

Peroxisome proliferators (PPs) cause proliferation of peroxisomes and hepatocarcinogenesis in

rodent liver, mediated by Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-alpha (PPARalpha). There

are marked species differences in peroxisome proliferator-induced responses, and the functionality

of PPARalpha may be an important determinant factor in species sensitivity to PPs. Primary

hepatocytes were investigated for a highly responsive marker induced by PPs to study the effects

of transfected PPARalphaCYP4A1 was highly induced in rat hepatocytes that require hydrocortisone

for maximal induction. Hepatocytes were cultured in hydrocortisone-deficient media

to determine if reduced endogenous PPARalpha was associated with lowered induction of

CYP4A1. However, there was residual induction of CYP4A1 by peroxisome proliferators. Primary

hepatocytes from PPARalpha knock-out (-/-) mice were investigated as they lack endogenous

PPARalphaIn vitro and in vivo studies demonstrated that Cyp4a10 and 14 were highly inducible

by PPs in the hepatocytes of wild-type but not in -/- mice. However, addition of either mouse or

guinea pig PPARalpha in -/- hepatocytes did not induce the expression of these marker genes, although

both receptors showed trans-activation ability in a reporter assay. The failure of added

PPARalpha to activate endogenous genes responsive to PPs, whilst at the same time activating episomal

DNA containing response elements of PP-inducible gene, suggests that the endogenous

genes require PPARalpha to remain in an accessible conformation.

Although hamster is considered to be a partially-responsive species to PPs, their response to PPs

is poorly characterized. Three CYP4A genes (CYP4A17, 18 and 19) were cloned from hamster

liver cDNA, and hepatic CYP4A17 was found to be highly inducible by PPs. In addition, PPARalphawas cloned from hamster liver and shows higher identity to rat and mouse PPARalpha than to

human and guinea pig. Hepatic expression of PPARalpha mRNA was compared between mouse,

hamster and guinea pig. The level of PPARalpha transcript was found to correlate well with species

response to PPs, i.e. mouse (highly responsive species) has the highest level and guinea pig (non-responsive) the lowest, while hamster (partially-responsive) has an intermediate level.

This is consistent with a model where the level of expression of hepatic PPARalpha determines species

response to PPs.

Expression of PPARalpha and transcriptional coactivators, such as PBP, SRC-1 and CBP/p300,

were confined to mouse liver at the RNA level, but in each case expression showed homogenous

distribution within the liver acinus and was non-inducible by PPs. Mouse PPARalpha ligand binding

domain (LBD) was bacterially expressed as a histidine-tagged protein and soluble proteins

were purified using affinity and column chromatography. Functional LBD may serve as a useful

bait in protein-protein interaction studies for the identification of any novel PPARalpha interacting

coactivator protein.

Item Type: Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors: Bell, David
Subjects: Q Science > QH Natural history. Biology > QH573 Cytology
Faculties/Schools: UK Campuses > Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Biology > Former School of Life and Environmental Sciences
Item ID: 10396
Depositing User: EP, Services
Date Deposited: 23 Jan 2008
Last Modified: 15 Oct 2017 12:36
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/10396

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