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Toxicity, DNA Binding, and Cell Proliferation in Male F344 Rats following Short-term Gavage Exposures to Trans-2-Hexenal
1 Curriculum in Toxicology and Correspondence: Address correspondence to: Dr. James A. Swenberg, Michael Hooker Research Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599; e-mail: james_swenberg{at}unc.edu.
Hexenal is a genotoxic compound to which humans are exposed daily through the consumption of foods and beverages. The present studies were conducted to examine the relationships between the dose-responses of trans-2-hexenal-induced toxicity, DNA adduct formation, and cell proliferation. Male F344 rats were exposed by gavage to single doses of up to 500 mg/kg and killed 1, 2, or 4 days after dosing or were exposed to repeat doses of up to 100 mg/kg once daily for 5 days or 5 days per week for 4 weeks and killed 1 day after the end of the dosing period. Histologically, the primary observations were necroulcerative lesions, inflammation, and hyperplasia in the forestomach and inflammation in the glandular stomach. Hexenal-derived DNA adduct formation and cell proliferation were induced in the forestomach at doses of hexenal that also induced gastric toxicity; DNA adducts were not observed in the glandular stomach. These findings suggest that the toxicity of hexenal was limited to the site of contact (stomach) and that the observed DNA adduct formation and cell proliferation occurred in the setting of severe tissue damage.
Key Words: Hexenal rat forestomach DNA adduct mass spectrometry proliferating cell nuclear antigen Abbreviations: ALDH, aldehyde dehydrogenase AR, aldose reductase AS, analyte standard CFE, Carworth Farm Strain E CFW, Carworth Farm Swiss Webster ctDNA, calf thymus DNA DAB, 3 3-diaminobenzidine EDTA, ethylenediaminetetracetic acid GSH, glutathione GST, glutathione-S-transferase Hexenal, trans-2-hexenal H&E, hematoxylin and eosin Hex-PdG, pair of diastereomeric exocyclic 1 N2-propanodeoxyguanosine adducts HPLC, high performance liquid chromatography ICR, Institute of Cancer Research i.p., intraperitoneal LC MS MS, liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry NMR, nuclear magnetic resonance NTP, National Toxicology Program fmol, femtomol (10–15 mol) PCNA, proliferating cell nuclear antigen
Humans are exposed daily to the 6 carbon , β-unsaturated aldehyde, trans-2-hexenal (hexenal), through consumption of food and beverages. Human exposures to hexenal are ~350 µg/kg/day, with 98% derived from natural sources and 2% from artificial flavorings (Stofberg and Grundschober, 1987; Flavor and Extracts Manufacturers Association, personal communication). Few data exist on the toxicity of hexenal (Gaunt et al., 1971; Ping et al., 2003). Following single gavage doses of hexenal, oral LD50 values were 780 or 1,130 mg/kg for male or female Carworth Farm Strain E (CFE) rats and 1,750 or 1,550 mg/kg for male or female Carworth Farm Swiss Webster (CFW) mice (Gaunt et al., 1971). Organ toxicity was not observed during the LD50 study. No clear evidence of toxicity was observed in male and female rats exposed to hexenal through the diet for 13 weeks at doses of up to 257 mg/kg/day in male rats or 304 mg/kg/day in female rats (concentrations of up to 4,000 ppm in feed; Gaunt et al., 1971). However, daily gavage administration of 200 mg/kg hexenal to rabbits for 13 weeks resulted in gastric toxicity, including hemorrhage and ulcers, and a decreased hemoglobin concentration (Gaunt et al., 1971). Cardiotoxicity has been reported in male Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice following hexenal exposure (Ping et al., 2003). Decreased left ventricular function, increased cardiomyocyte apoptosis, and increased hexenal-protein adduct formation were observed. Protein adducts were increased both in the heart and in isolated cardiac mitochondria incubated with hexenal. Hexenal has not been thoroughly evaluated for carcinogenic potential, but there is evidence of tumor formation at multiple sites in rodents following intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of 50 mg/kg, although the study was limited by a small sample size (Nádasi et al., 2005).
Organ toxicity and carcinogenicity following administration of other There is extensive evidence of hexenal-induced genotoxicity and mutagenicity. Hexenal induces a variety of genotoxic lesions following in vitro exposures, including oxidative DNA damage, exocyclic DNA adducts, single-strand breaks, micronuclei, sister chromatid exchanges, aneuploidy, and unscheduled DNA synthesis (Dittberner et al., 1995; Eder et al., 1993; Eisenbrand et al., 1995; Glaab et al., 2001; Gölzer et al., 1996; Griffin and Segall, 1986; Janzowski et al., 2003). Hexenal was mutagenic in the Ames assay (Eder et al., 1992; Marnett et al., 1985) and in Chinese hamster ovary cells at cytotoxic concentrations (Canonero et al., 1990). DNA adduct formation is thought to be an important step in the initiation and progression of carcinogenesis, and DNA adducts are biomarkers of both exposure and genotoxicity. Hexenal forms a pair of diastereomeric exocyclic 1,N2-propan-odeoxyguanosine adducts (Hex-PdG) on reaction with deoxyguanosine (Figure 1; Eder et al., 1993; Eder and Hoffman, 1993) and DNA (Douki and Ames, 1994; Gölzer et al., 1996; Stout et al., 2006). Hex-PdG has been detected, using 32P-postlabeling, in the DNA of treated cells (Gölzer et al., 1996) and tissues (Schuler and Eder, 1999; Schuler et al., 1999) following hexenal exposure. High concentrations of Hex-PdG were reported in F344 rats 2 days after single doses of 200 or 500 mg/kg, especially in the forestomach, liver, esophagus, and kidney, and to a lesser extent, in the duodenum, colon, glandular stomach, lung, and urinary bladder (Schuler and Eder, 1999). Hex-PdG was detectable only in the forestomach and liver and quantifiable only in the esophagus in animals receiving 50 mg/kg.
Hexenal appears to be metabolized primarily by aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), which oxidizes hexenal, and glutathione-S-transferase (GST), which conjugates hexenal to glutathione (GSH; Lame and Segall, 1986; Mitchell and Petersen, 1987, 1989; Boyland and Chasseaud, 1968; Eisenbrand et al., 1995); these reactions are thought to detoxify hexenal (Townsend et al., 2001; Marnett et al., 1985). Reduction by aldose reductase (AR) may also be involved in the detoxification of hexenal. Reduction of hexenal by this enzyme has been demonstrated (Burczynski et al., 2001; Ramana et al., 2001) and may be more efficient following GSH conjugation (Dixit et al., 2000; Ramana, et al., 2001). Since hexenal does not require metabolic activation, the dose at which the detoxification becomes saturated should represent an inflection point for a sublinear dose response. At doses above this point, the response would be much greater per unit dose (La and Swenberg, 1996). Below this dose, metabolic defenses should be sufficient for detoxification. A sublinear dose response was previously reported for Hex-PdG induction in esophagus, forestomach, and liver DNA in F344 rats exposed to single doses of hexenal (Schuler and Eder, 1999). Currently, hexenal is generally regarded as safe as a flavoring agent, despite its ubiquitous human exposure and genotoxic potential. The present studies were conducted to define the dose-response relationships for hexenal-induced toxicity, DNA binding, and cell proliferation following short-term exposures through conventional and mechanistic toxicology studies to extend molecular dosimetry data to lower, repeat-dose exposures to examine the possible accumulation of Hex-PdG and to place the mechanistic events in the context of organ toxicity.
Test Article and Dosing Solutions Hexenal (CAS 6728-26-3) was obtained from Sigma (St. Louis, Missouri); the reported purity was 98%. The identity of hexenal was confirmed using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Dosing solutions (2 ml/kg) were prepared in corn oil (Sigma, St. Louis, Missouri). For single-dose and 1-week dosing, dosing solutions were prepared just before the first dose administration. The stability of dosing solutions for 1 week was confirmed by NMR spectroscopy before the initiation of the 4-week study; dosing solutions were prepared once weekly for the 4-week study.
Study Animals
Study Design
Repeat-dose Exposures
Pathology
Clinical Chemistry and Hematology
Quantitation of Hex-PdG DNA from forestomach (up to 200 µg; single doses of 0, 50, or 200 mg/kg, killed 1, 2, or 4 days after dosing or 0, 10, 30, or 100 mg/kg for 1 or 4 weeks), glandular stomach (500 µg; single doses of 0 or 200 mg/kg, sacrificed 1, 2, or 4 days after dosing or 0 or 100 mg/kg for 1 or 4 weeks), or liver (500 µg; single doses of 0, 200, or 500 mg/kg, sacrificed 1, 2, or 4 days after dosing or 0 or 100 mg/kg for 1 or 4 weeks) of hexenal exposed rats was processed and analyzed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) according to a published method (Stout et al., 2006), with some exceptions. Briefly, DNA was enzymatically hydrolyzed in the presence of 61 or 305 femtomol (fmol) [13C4 15N2] Hex-PdG as an internal standard and centrifugally filtered. Next, samples were purified by solid phase extraction, evaporated in a centrifugal lyophilizer, and resus-pended in 20 to 40 µl 10% acetonitrile. For each set of samples processed, a standard curve of 0, 5, 15, and 25 fmol Hex-PdG analyte standard (AS) spiked into 200 µg calf thymus DNA (ctDNA), a method blank, an internal standard blank, and a sample of hexenal-treated ctDNA was included to assess method performance. A complete description of these controls can be found elsewhere (Stout et al., 2006). LC/MS/MS data were acquired using a Finnigan Surveyor autosampler and pump coupled to a Finnigan TSQQuantum triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer. An Aquasil 150 x 2.1 mm (5µ) C18 reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) column (Fisher Scientific, Raleigh, North Carolina) was used for separation of Hex-PdG from other sample components. The mass spectrometer was equipped with an electrospray source that was operated in the positive ionization mode. For mass analysis, selected reaction monitoring was used to monitor the loss of deoxyribose from Hex-PdG and [13C415N2]Hex-PdG. The method limit of quantitation was 0.015 fmol Hex-PdG/µg DNA (200 µg DNA) or 0.006 fmol Hex-PdG/µg DNA (500 µg DNA).
Quantitation of Cell Proliferation
Statistical Analysis
Single-dose Exposures Doses (0, 50, 200, or 500 mg/kg) were the same as those used by Schuler and Eder (1999). One rat given a single dose of 500 mg/kg was removed from the study 2 days after dosing because of excessive weight loss. In some cases, certain tissues were not available from all animals in a group.
Body Weight
Hematology and Clinical Chemistry No hematological changes attributed to a single administration of up to 500 mg/kg of 2-hexenal were observed at 1, 2, or 4 days postdosing (data not shown). Selected clinical chemistry data demonstrating significant biochemical changes in rats receiving single doses of hexenal are shown in Table 2. After single doses of hexenal, dose-related decreases in albumin and total protein concentrations occurred, with a 30% reduction in the 200 mg/kg group and a 50% reduction in the 500 mg/kg group on days 1 and 2 postdosing. These serum protein effects appeared to be transient, and by day 4 postdosing, the protein decreases ameliorated. Single administration of up to 500 mg/kg of hexenal was associated with increased serum concentrations of triglycerides. The highest triglyceride increase occurred on day 1 post-dosing with an approximate 4-fold increase in the 500 mg/kg animals, with the increase ameliorating with time. Single administration of up to 500 mg/kg of hexenal resulted in decreased serum activities of several enzymes. However, the toxicologic significance of this was not apparent.
Gross Pathology At necropsy, lesions were observed only in the stomach and increased in both severity and incidence with increases in dose. No significant lesions were observed in any other tissues. After a single dose of 50 mg/kg, there was slight edema in the stomach of 2 animals. At 200 or 500 mg/kg, there was necrosis of the forestomach mucosa with a prominent pseudomembrane of fibrin, degenerative cells, and debris.
Histopathology
50 mg/kg After 1 day, there was minimal multifocal epithelial hyperplasia with mild mucosal edema in the forestomach and cellular infiltrates in the lamina propria at the gastric limiting ridge in one animal. These changes were also observed in another rat but only at the gastric limiting ridge. Similar forestomach changes were observed in some or most rats at 2 or 4 days, respectively.
200 mg/kg After 2 days, there was severe, subacute, locally extensive coagulative necrosis with erosions or ulcers and severe edema in the forestomach of all rats. There were also interspersed areas of significant mucosal regeneration and epithelial hyperplasia. The lesions at the gastric limiting ridge were somewhat different between the 3 available sections evaluated. The lesions were characterized by multifocal erosions with or without hemorrhage, mucosal regeneration, and epithelial hyperplasia. In 1 rat, there were multifocal ulcers, erosions, and areas of necrosis with large intraepithelial bullae. A pseudomembrane of fibrin, bacterial colonies, and degenerated neutrophils covered the areas of necrosis. In the lamina propria of the glandular stomach, there were mild cellular infiltrates of mainly neutrophils with or without edema in all rats. After 4 days, severe mucosal regeneration and epithelial hyperplasia with dysplasia were present in all rats, with submucosal edema, neovascularization, and fibroblast proliferation in most rats. In 2 rats, a large ulcer in the forestomach was covered by a coagulum of fibrin, neutrophils, red blood cells, bacteria, and cellular debris. The lesions at the gastric limiting ridge in 3 rats were similar to that of the forestomach, with the exception of less prominent hyperplasia. The primary response observed in the glandular stomach was mild to severe edema with cellular infiltrates of neutrophils and macrophages, frequently perivascular in location.
500 mg/kg After 2 days, there was coagulative necrosis or diffuse loss of the mucosa with ulcers and erosions in the 4 rats available for analysis. The lesions were typically covered by a coagulum of fibrin, hemorrhage, necrotic debris, and bacteria. There was also significant edema of the submucosa with large numbers of infiltrates, that is, primarily neutrophils that were also frequently arranged as perivascular cuffs. In 1 rat, these inflammatory changes extended to the subserosal area. The lesions at the gastric limiting ridge were similar to those of the forestomach in the rats examined. In the glandular stomach of some rats, there was mucosal edema with large numbers of cellular infiltrates and acute hemorrhage. In 1 rat, there was also epithelial necrosis with mineralization and dilation of the lumens. In the submucosa, there was severe diffuse edema, significant infiltrates of predominantly neutrophils, and fibrinoid vascular necrosis. In 1 rat, the inflammatory infiltrate extended into the subserosa. After 4 days, there was diffuse necrosis of the forestomach mucosa, which extended in some cases into the muscularis mucosa. Associated with the necrosis were severe diffuse edema, significant cellular infiltrates, fibrinoid vascular necrosis, and hemorrhage as well as fibroblast proliferation and mucosal regeneration. In most rats, the lesions at the gastric limiting ridge mirrored those of the forestomach. Variable lesions were observed in the glandular stomach of most rats. The lesions were characterized by multifocal ectatic glands filled with necrotic debris that were lined by regenerating epithelium with or without hemorrhage, submucosal edema, and cellular infiltrates that sometimes formed perivascular cuffs.
Hex-PdG Formation
Repeat-dose Exposures Doses for the 1-week study were selected based on results of the single-dose study, while doses for the 4-week study were selected based on the results of the 1-week study. Because of a dosing error, 1 rat was killed on the first day of the 4-week study. As a result, there were only 4 control animals at this exposure duration. In some cases, certain tissues were not available from all animals in a group.
Body Weight
Hematology and Clinical Chemistry No hematological or biochemical changes attributed to administration of up to 100 mg/kg of 2-hexenal were observed following 1 or 4 weeks of daily dosing (data not shown).
Gross Pathology
Histopathology
Hex-PdG Formation DNA from the forestomach (200 µg), glandular stomach (500 µg), and liver (500 µg) was examined for Hex-PdG formation. In some cases, less than 200 µg of forestomach DNA was available for analysis. Hex-PdG was not quantifiable in control forestomach DNA (1 week: n = 4; 4 weeks: n = 5) or forestomach DNA of rats after exposure to 10 or 30 mg/kg for 1 or 4 weeks (n = 5). Hex-PdG was not quantifiable in control glandular stomach DNA or glandular stomach DNA after exposure to 100 mg/kg for 1 or 4 weeks (n = 3). Hex-PdG was not quantifiable in control liver DNA or in liver DNA after exposure to 100 mg/kg for 1 (n = 5) or 4 (n = 3) weeks. Hex-PdG was quantifiable in forestomach DNA of most rats exposed to 100 mg/kg of hexenal for 1 or 4 weeks (n = 5). Concentrations of Hex-PdG in forestomach DNA are shown in Table 5, and representative LC/MS/MS chromatograms from rats treated with 0 or 100 mg/kg for 4 weeks are shown in Figure 6.
Cell Proliferation Cell-proliferation data of the liver and forestomach of rats treated with hexenal for 1 or 4 weeks are summarized in Tables 7 and 8. Positive trends in forestomach cell proliferation were observed following treatment for 1 or 4 weeks. Increases were significant after exposure to 30 mg/kg for 4 weeks (p < .05) or 100 mg/kg hexenal for 1 (p < .05) or 4 (p < .01) weeks. Cell proliferation was not significantly increased over controls in the liver after exposure to 100 mg/kg hexenal for 1 or 4 weeks.
Hexenal is a genotoxic compound to which humans are exposed daily through the consumption of foods and beverages, in which it is present as both a natural and an artificial ingredient. The purpose of these studies was to examine the relationships between the dose-responses of toxicity, DNA binding, and cell proliferation following in vivo exposure to hexenal, thus anchoring cellular and molecular mechanistic endpoints to organ toxicity. In addition, these studies provide data on the hazards that occur following exposure to high-bolus doses of hexenal. Decreased body weights or body-weight gains were observed following single doses of 200 or 500 mg/kg, or repeat doses of 100 mg/kg. On gross or microscopic evaluation of tissues, there were no significant lesions observed in the livers of rats at any dose or exposure duration. Damage to the glandular stomach was minor compared to the forestomach but clearly present and primarily characterized by inflammation at single doses of 200 or 500 mg/kg. In the forestomach, damage was minimal at 50 mg/kg, while necroulcerative lesions accompanied by inflammation were predominant at single doses of 200 or 500 mg/kg. This would suggest that metabolic defenses were saturated between 50 and 200 mg/kg and that an inflection point for a sublinear dose response would occur between these doses. Forestomach hyperplasia was the predominant lesion observed following repeat dosing. Hyperplasia was more extensive across dose groups at 4 weeks compared to 1 week, but was most apparent at 100 mg/kg for both exposure durations, indicating that damage occurred at lower doses with a longer period of exposure. The progression of lesions of the forestomach from those observed following single-dose exposures to those observed following repeat-dose exposures indicates that an adaptive proliferative response was activated to repair damage. The induction of gastric toxicity by hexenal was most likely the cause of the observed body-weight effects. The finding of gastric toxicity was consistent with that observed in rabbits (Gaunt et al., 1971). Clinical chemistry analysis provided biochemical evidence in support of the histopathologic findings. The decreases in total protein concentration were consistent with the decrease in serum albumin. A decrease in serum albumin is a common form of dysproteinemia (Kaneko, 1989) and has been related to protein loss, nutritional deficiencies, or altered albumin metabolism. Because the change in serum proteins occurred acutely postdosing and since there was gross or histopathological evidence of gastric injury but no biochemical or histopathological evidence of liver injury, the transient alteration in albumin concentration was most likely caused by the acute toxic insult to the gastrointestinal tract. The mechanism for the acute but transient increase in serum triglyceride concentration was unknown. Since the triglyceride effect was also acute and apparently transient, similar to the serum protein effects, it could be that the change in the triglyceride concentration was also related to an acute toxic insult to the gastrointestinal tract. The toxicological implication of the decreased serum enzyme activities in this study is unknown. Analysis of Hex-PdG formation was undertaken to compare Hex-PdG measurements by LC/MS/MS to those that were measured by 32P-postlabeling after single-dose exposures to place Hex-PdG formation in the context of organ toxicity, which would aid in determining if genotoxicity would potentially occur at doses relevant to human exposures or at high doses secondary to organ toxicity and to extend molecular dosimetry data to lower, repeat-dose exposures to examine the possible accumulation of Hex-PdG. Despite the replication of the single-dose exposure parameters, the results reported herein were strikingly different from those obtained by 32P-postlabeling, in which adduct concentrations were relatively high, particularly in the esophagus, forestomach, and liver (Schuler and Eder, 1999); surprisingly, the extensive toxicity to the forestomach observed during the present study was not reported (Schuler and Eder, 1999). The purity of hexenal used in the Schuler and Eder (1999) study was 99%, while the purity of hexenal used in the current study was 98%. Corn oil was used as a vehicle in both studies. Even in the unlikely event that such a small difference in purity could account for the difference in toxicity, Hex-PdG concentrations should still be similar. In rats killed 2 days after dosing with 200 mg/kg, 1.3 and 0.45 fmol Hex-PdG/µg DNA were reported in the forestomach and liver (using the approximate conversion factor of 70 nmol dGuo/100 µg DNA). Two days after treatment with 500 mg/kg, these concentrations were 9.0 and 5.0 fmol/µg DNA. In the present study, Hex-PdG was quantifiable only in the forestomach of rats killed 1 day after a single dose of 200 mg/kg or 1 day after exposure to 100 mg/kg for 1 or 4 weeks but at concentrations 25-fold to 50-fold lower than previously reported (0.02 to 0.04 fmol/µg DNA). These concentrations of Hex-PdG were approaching the method limit of quantitation; Hex-PdG was quantifiable in most but not all of these samples. Hex-PdG was not detected 2 days or 4 days after single doses or at lower concentrations of single or repeat doses. Hex-PdG measurements in forestomach DNA were not examined in rats exposed to 500 mg/kg hexenal, because of complete or near-complete loss of the forestomach mucosa. Doses that did not induce damage to the mucosa or induce cell proliferation did not result in Hex-PdG formation in forestomach DNA.
Detection of Hex-PdG in these tissues may have been obscured by tissue necrosis or cell proliferation. It is also possible that cells containing Hex-PdG undergo apoptosis, preventing the measurement of Hex-PdG in these cells. Hex-PdG was not quantifiable in glandular stomach DNA under any exposure scenario. Hex-PdG was occasionally quantifiable in liver DNA at concentrations ( The time course of Hex-PdG formation was also different between the 2 studies. In the previous study, the highest concentrations of Hex-PdG were found 2 days after dosing, while in the present study, formation of Hex-PdG was only found 1 day after dosing. The discrepancy in the Hex-PdG concentrations between 32P-postlabeling and LC/MS/MS is possibly caused by inherent differences in the methods used. 32P-postlabeling, while sensitive, is not specific, does not use an internal standard, and can be prone to false positive results because of poor resolution and lack of structural characterization during analysis. It is possible that an unresolved mixture of adducts was detected. The advantages of LC/MS/MS over 32P-postlabeling have been described elsewhere (Koc and Swenberg, 2002; Singh and Farmer, 2006).
In primary rat hepatocytes, [14C2]hexenal bound with decreasing relative affinity to DNA, RNA, and protein (Eisenbrand et al., 1995). However, cell-protein content is much higher than DNA content, so the majority of the hexenal was bound to protein. As a result, the extent of DNA binding at doses that do not extensively bind protein would likely be low because of the excess of protein available for binding, while doses that induced extensive protein binding would likely also overwhelm metabolism and result in toxicity. In the present study, animals were not fasted before dosing, which occurred in the morning following nocturnal feeding. Thus, glutathione levels would not be artificially reduced; since The extent of cell proliferation was quantitated using PCNA immunohistochemistry, which has been demonstrated to be an effective means of examining cell proliferation retrospectively (Dietrich et al., 1994). An increase in cell proliferation of the forestomach was anticipated because of the initial necroulcerative damage and subsequent hyperplasia observed microscopically, and it likely occurred secondarily to tissue damage. The trends for forestomach cell proliferation were positive at both 1 and 4 weeks. Increases were significant after dosing with 30 mg/kg for 4 weeks and with 100 mg/kg for 1 week or 4 weeks. Since the liver is also able to proliferate following cytotoxic damage, the lack of significant proliferation supports the absence of toxicity in the liver. Rapid cell turnover reduces the time available for DNA repair and is required to convert DNA adducts to mutations. Cell proliferation is also believed to promote tumor formation because of selective expansion of initiated cells. Furthermore, cell proliferation is a frequent sequela to injury and provides a relatively objective and quantitative measure of toxic response. While hexenal is toxic to the glandular stomach, the extent is low compared to the forestomach and not accompanied by Hex-PdG formation. The glandular epithelium in rats is similar in structure to the stomach of humans, where the production of mucous provides protection against damage. The function of the forestomach in rats is primarily for storage of food, which increases the duration of exposure. Thus, it appears that the phenomenon of toxicity and DNA binding in the rat forestomach following hexenal treatment is caused by direct contact for relatively long periods of time, making its relevance to human exposure less clear. In contrast to the gastric toxicity observed, no histopathological, biochemical, or molecular evidence of liver injury was detected after hexenal exposure. Since hexenal is thought to exert its deleterious effects directly, detoxification by ALDH, GST/GSH, and possibly by AR or other pathways or removal resulting from binding to tissue and dietary constituents such as proteins are possible explanations for the lack of hepatic toxicity. The National Toxicology Program (NTP) conducted studies of the toxicity and carcinogenicity of 2,4-hexadienal (hexadienal; Chan et al., 2003; National Toxicology Program, 2003). Like hexenal, hexadienal is found in foods as a natural and artificial component and is generally regarded as safe. Subacute (16-day) dosing of up to 240 mg hexadienal/kg by gavage resulted in necroulcerative lesions of the forestomach at high doses and forestomach hyperplasia at lower doses in both F344N rats and B6C3F1 mice. There was no histologic or biochemical evidence of liver injury. There was an increase in absolute liver weight in female rats and mice and liver weight and body weight in female rats at 240 mg/kg. Subchronic (90-day) dosing of up to 120 mg/kg resulted primarily in forestomach hyperplasia. Again, there was no evidence of liver injury except for increased liver weights; relative liver weights were increased at all doses in females, while both absolute and relative liver weights were increased in males and females at 60 mg/kg. Treatment with doses of up to 90 mg/kg in mice and 120 mg/kg in rats for 2 years resulted in increases in forestomach hyperplasia and forestomach papillomas and carcinomas in male and female rats and mice, which the NTP interpreted as clear evidence of carcinogenicity. The relevance of this tumor type to humans is unclear because of the structural differences between the human and rodent stomach. The authors suggest that tumors in this study may have been a result of local irritation, direct or indirect DNA damage, or both. These results are in agreement with the results presented in the present report, both in regard to the spectrum of lesions observed in the forestomach and to the lack of significant liver or glandular stomach toxicity. The present report details gastric toxicity at high doses following exposure of F344 rats to hexenal by oral gavage. The primary findings of this study were that the deleterious effects of hexenal occurred in the stomach, primarily in the forestomach, but not the liver and that gastric toxicity accompanied Hex-PdG formation, which was found at much lower concentrations than previously reported. The occurrence of both DNA binding and cell proliferation is typically favorable for the initiation and promotion of tumors; however, following gavage exposure to hexenal, these effects on the forestomach occur only at doses that also induce forestomach toxicity. The observation that the deleterious effects observed in this study occurred only at the site of exposure provides support for hexenals acting directly, while both the observed histopathology and the relationships among the dose responses provide support for hexenals acting primarily through an irritation mode of action, with damage followed by regeneration. Humans are exposed to a daily dose of ~350 µg hexenal/kg/ day. Human exposure is ~300-fold lower than the 100 mg/kg dose that induced Hex-PdG formation and toxicity to the forestomach at 1 or 4 weeks in rats and ~30-fold lower than the 10 mg/kg dose that induced minimal toxicity to the forestomach but did not induce detectable Hex-PdG in rats. In addition, gavage dosing delivered bolus doses of hexenal directly to the stomach, while human exposures are spread over the day as part of dietary intake. This difference in dosing has been shown to greatly exaggerate toxicity for direct-acting chemicals (La and Swenberg, 1996) because of saturation of metabolic detoxification. Based on the observations that gastric toxicity occurred at relatively high bolus doses, that concentrations of Hex-PdG would be much lower than typical endogenous DNA adduct concentrations (even if formation in the rat forestomach following gavage exposure is linear and similar to the human stomach after dietary exposure concentrations), and that cell proliferation was likely a regenerative response to gastric toxicity, the observed effects on the stomach are unlikely at levels of human exposure. To more thoroughly characterize the dose response of toxicity following hexenal exposure and the potential for hexenal to induce tumors, subchronic and chronic toxicity studies would be needed. Inclusion of the dietary route of administration would elucidate whether the toxicity of gavage doses is caused by the delivery of a bolus dose of a direct-acting toxicant. These studies should follow the dose-selection rationale used by the NTP for study on 2,4-hexadienal, in which doses for 2-year bioassay did not produce overt gastric toxicity in short-term studies (Chan et al., 2003; National Toxicology Program, 2003).
We thank Ralph Wilson and Sandy Ward for skilled technical assistance with clinical chemistry and hematology, Norris Flagler for preparation of figures for publication, and Drs. Louise M. Ball and Po Chan for critical review of the manuscript. The mass spectrometry facility at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is partly funded by NIH Grant P30-ES10126. Additional support was provided by NIH Grants T32-CA72319, T32-ES07126, and ES11746, the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Division of Intramural Research.
Present address for Matthew D. Stout: National Toxicology Program, Research Triangle Park, NC; present address for Elmarie Bodes: AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, Wilmington, DE; present address for Robert Schoonhoven: MPI Research, Mattawan, MI.
This version was published on February
1, 2008 Toxicologic Pathology, Vol. 36, No. 2,
232-246 (2008)
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, β-unsaturated aldehyde, trans-2-hexenal (hexenal), through consumption of food and beverages. Human exposures to hexenal are ~350 µg/kg/day, with 98% derived from natural sources and 2% from artificial flavorings (





0.006 fmol/µg DNA) 2 to 3 orders of magnitude lower than those previously reported on treatment with single doses that induced severe gastric toxicity (1 day after 200 or 500 mg/kg); these signals may have been spurious. In any case, Hex-PdG formation in liver DNA was not definitively shown. Hex-PdG was not quantifiable in the liver following repeat-dose exposures. 