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Phytol-induced Hepatotoxicity in Mice
1 Department of Pathobiology, Texas A&M University, TVMC, College Station, Texas, USA Correspondence: John T. Mackie, IDEXX Laboratories, 3 Overend Street, East Brisbane, Queensland 4169, Australia; e-mail:john-mackie{at}idexx.com.
Phytanic acid is a branched-chain, saturated fatty acid present in high concentrations in dairy products and ruminant fat. Some other dietary fats contain lower levels of phytol, which is readily converted to phytanic acid after absorption. Phytanic acid is a peroxisome proliferator binding the nuclear transcription factor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR ) to induce expression of genes encoding enzymes of fatty acid oxidation in peroxisomes and mitochondria. Administration of dietary phytol (0.5% or 1%) to normal mice for twelve to eighteen days caused consistent PPAR -mediated responses, such as lower body weights, higher liver weights, peroxisome proliferation, increased catalase expression, and hepatocellular hypertrophy and hyperplasia. Female mice fed 0.5% phytol and male and female mice fed 1% phytol exhibited midzonal hepatocellular necrosis, periportal hepatocellular fatty vacuolation, and corresponding increases in liver levels of the phytol metabolites phytanic acid and pristanic acid. Hepatic expression of sterol carrier protein-x (SCP-x) was five- to twelve-fold lower in female mice than in male mice. These results suggest that phytol may cause selective midzonal hepatocellular necrosis in mice, an uncommon pattern of hepatotoxic injury, and that the greater susceptibility of female mice may reflect a lower capacity to oxidize phytanic acid because of their intrinsically lower hepatic expression of SCP-x.
Key Words: phytol phytanic acid PPAR Abbreviations: GAPDH, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase PCNA, proliferating cell nuclear antigen PPAR
Phytanic acid is a branched-chain, saturated fatty acid present in high concentrations in dairy products and ruminant fat (Steinberg 1995), serving as the main branched-chain fatty acid in the human diet. Degradation of chlorophyll by ruminal bacteria produces phytol, which is readily converted to phytanic acid in ruminant tissues (Steinberg 1995). Other dietary fats including vegetable oils contain lower levels of free phytol, which is readily converted to phytanic acid after absorption. There is no endogenous synthesis of either phytol or phytanic acid. Phytanic acid undergoes - and β-oxidation in peroxisomes, yielding shortened products that are transported to the mitochondria for further oxidation (Reddy and Hashimoto 2001; Seedorf et al. 1998; Westin et al. 2007). In humans, hereditary defects in specific peroxisomal enzymes (for example, Refsums disease) and generalized peroxisomal disorders cause massive accumulation of phytanic acid and its metabolites (Steinberg 1995; Reddy and Hashimoto 2001; Verhoeven et al. 1998; Wanders et al. 1995). Recent evidence suggests a link between high dietary intake of phytanic acid and increased risk of prostate cancer in humans, possibly mediated through the peroxisomal enzyme -methylacyl-CoA racemase (Mobley et al. 2003; Thornburg et al. 2006).
Phytanic acid stimulates peroxisome proliferation, is the highest affinity naturally occurring ligand that binds the nuclear transcription factor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor
Animals Mice in the present study were of a hybrid C57BL/6NCR 129/SvJ background and were wild type (+/+) littermates from previously described studies (Atshaves et al. 2005; Atshaves et al. 2007). Mice were kept under a twelve-hour light/dark cycle in a temperature-controlled (25°C) facility with access ad libitum to food and water. Mice in the facility were monitored quarterly for infectious diseases and were specific pathogen free, particularly in reference to mouse hepatitis virus. Animal protocols were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of Texas A&M University.
Antibodies
Dietary (phytol) Studies
Animal Sacrifice and Tissue Collection
Histopathology
Western Blotting
Lipid Analyses (phytanic acid and pristanic acid)
Statistics
There was no significant difference in food consumption between phytol-fed mice and control mice (data not shown). Body weights at the end of the study were significantly lower in male mice on 1% phytol but not 0.5% phytol (Figure 1A). These effects were even more prominent in female mice fed 1% phytol or even 0.5% phytol (Figure 1B). On DEXA scans, the phytol-induced weight loss was a result of reduction of both FTM and LTM (data not shown). Liver weight was significantly increased in most groups of phytol-fed mice, but there was no obvious sex difference (Figures 1C, 1D). Peroxisome proliferation was evident in phytol-fed mice, especially females, as determined by quantitative analysis of Western blots for catalase expression (Figure 2) and light microscopic evaluation of sections stained with DAB for catalase (data not shown).
Grossly, some livers from female mice fed 0.5% phytol and male and female mice fed 1% phytol in the diet were enlarged, pale, and friable, with an accentuated lobular pattern. Microscopically, livers from male mice on 0.5% phytol were usually normal in appearance or exhibited subtle hepatocellular hypertrophy (Figure 3C). In contrast, all female mice on 0.5% phytol and all male and female mice on 1% phytol exhibited necrosis and loss of hepatocytes (Figures 3D–3F), which tended to be most severe in female mice fed 1% phytol (Figure 4). The necrosis was predominantly midzonal in distribution. In some mice, the necrosis extended to involve centrilobular hepatocytes, though there was a tendency to preserve at least the last one or two rows of hepatocytes surrounding the central veins. Based on morphology, cell death appeared to be occurring by both apoptosis (Figure 3D, inset) and non-apoptotic mechanisms (Figure 3F). An inflammatory reaction, consisting mainly of macrophages, with fewer neutrophils in places, was associated with the necrosis in some but not all affected livers. The severity of the inflammation tended to correlate with the severity of the necrosis. In some areas, midzonal apoptosis was occurring with no or minimal associated inflammation. In the most severely affected livers, occasional multinucleated giant cells and foci of mineralization were observed. Additional changes, more pronounced in male and female mice on 1% phytol, included hepatocellular hypertrophy (mainly centrilobular, but occasionally also periportal), and periportal hepatocellular fatty vacuolation. The midzonal necrosis tended to occur at the edge of the zone of periportal hepatocytes undergoing fatty vacuolation (Figures 3E and 3F). Increased numbers of mitotic figures and immunohistochemical staining for PCNA indicated a higher rate of hepatocellular proliferation in phytol-fed mice (Figure 5). Minimal to mild hyperplasia of bile ductule epithelial cells was observed in a minority of phytol-fed mice, but there was no cholestasis, necrosis, or inflammation of the biliary epithelium to suggest injury to the biliary system.
Liver levels of the phytol metabolites phytanic acid and pristanic acid were significantly elevated in female mice on 0.5% phytol and male and female mice on 1% phytol (Figure 6). In female mice, these changes appeared to be time and dose dependent.
Hepatic expression of SCP-x, determined by quantitative analysis of Western blots, was five- to twelve-fold lower in control female mice than in control male mice (Figure 7). Expression of SCP-x was significantly increased in male mice fed 0.5% phytol and in female mice fed 0.5% phytol and 1% phytol compared with control mice.
Phytol-fed mice exhibited consistent PPAR -mediated responses (Cattley and Popp 2002) such as lower body weights, higher liver weights, peroxisome proliferation, increased catalase expression, centrilobular hepatocellular hypertrophy, and hepatocellular hyperplasia. A higher dietary phytol level was associated with hepatocellular necrosis and inflammation, presumed to be secondary inflammation. The primarily mid-zonal necrosis appeared to occur by both apoptotic and non-apoptotic mechanisms. Female mice were more susceptible to lower concentrations (0.5%) of dietary phytol than were male mice, as indicated by lower body weights, higher liver weights, and higher necrosis and inflammation scores. At the light microscopic level, there was no evidence of injury to the biliary system, indicating that microscopically visible damage was confined to hepatocytes. The greater susceptibility of female mice to the toxic effects of dietary phytol may reflect sexual dimorphism in the absorption of phytol from the diet or in any one of numerous metabolic enzymes. One such enzyme is SCP-x, a lipid-binding protein which also catalyzes the thiolase step in the oxidation of branched chain lipids such as phytanic acid (Seedorf et al. 1998). Data from the present and previous studies demonstrate a five- to twelve-fold lower hepatic expression of SCP-x in female mice compared with male mice (Atshaves et al. 2005; Atshaves et al. 2007). Compared with control mice, mice that exhibited hepatic necrosis (female mice on 0.5% phytol and male and female mice on 1% phytol) had significantly higher liver levels of the phytol metabolites phytanic acid and pristanic acid. Both of these metabolites are upstream from the thiolase step catalyzed by SCP-x. Taken together, these results are consistent with female mice having a lower capacity for peroxisomal oxidation of phytanic acid owing to their relatively lower hepatic levels of SCP-x compared to male mice, and provide further in vivo support for the proposed role of SCP-x in branched-chain fatty acid oxidation. These pathology findings confirm and extend a previous observation regarding sexually dimorphic metabolism of phytol in C57BL/6J mice (Atshaves et al. 2004).
The mechanism of hepatocellular necrosis associated with phytanic acid is not known. Hepatocellular damage could potentially result from phytanic acid accumulation leading to hyperstimulation of PPAR Midzonal hepatocellular necrosis is unusual, as most hepatotoxins produce centrilobular, and less frequently periportal, necrosis (Cattley and Popp 2002; Kelly 1993). Selective midzonal necrosis has been described with compounds such as ngaione (a furan component from plants of the genus Myoporum) and aflatoxins (Kelly 1993). Contamination of the feed by aflatoxin is considered very unlikely to be the cause of the observed hepatic necrosis, as no lesions were observed in control animals and yet consistent lesions were seen in phytol-fed animals in the four separate studies. It is not clear what specific properties of midzonal hepatocytes predispose them to certain toxins, although it is almost certainly a function of metabolic gradients that exist across the liver lobule, which in some cases may lead to incomplete degradation of reactive intermediate metabolites (Jungermann 1988; Kelly 1993). Susceptibility of midzonal hepatocytes to phytol-induced injury may reflect the net effect of competing, gradient-associated factors including delivery of phytanic acid to the lobules via portal blood, peroxisomal and mitochondrial density, the speed and extent of oxidation of phytanic acid, and production of potentially toxic intermediate compounds including CYP4A metabolites such as dicarboxylic acids.
This work was supported in part by the USPHS, National Institutes of Health Grants DK-41402 (FS, ABK) and DK-70965 (BPA). The excellent technical assistance of Mr. Danilo Landrock, Ms. Kerstin Landrock and Dr. Andy Ambrus was greatly appreciated.
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This version was published on February
1, 2009 Toxicologic Pathology, Vol. 37, No. 2,
201-208 (2009)
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(PPAR






-oxidation of fatty acid in the smooth endoplasmic reticulum). Alternative mechanisms could include interference with mitochondrial function, or membrane damage from insertion of the "thorny" branched-chain phytanic acid molecule in the highly ordered structure of the membrane lipid bilayer (