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Epigenetic Modifications of the Liver Tumor Cell Line HepG2 Increase Their Drug Metabolic Capacity

Although human liver tumor cells have reduced metabolic functions as compared to primary human hepatocytes (PHH) they are widely used for pre-screening tests of drug metabolism and toxicity. The aim of the present study was to modify liver cancer cell lines in order to improve their drug-metabolizin...

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Autores principales: Ruoß, Marc, Damm, Georg, Vosough, Massoud, Ehret, Lisa, Grom-Baumgarten, Carl, Petkov, Martin, Naddalin, Silvio, Ladurner, Ruth, Seehofer, Daniel, Nussler, Andreas, Sajadian, Sahar
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
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Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6358789/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30654452
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms20020347
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author Ruoß, Marc
Damm, Georg
Vosough, Massoud
Ehret, Lisa
Grom-Baumgarten, Carl
Petkov, Martin
Naddalin, Silvio
Ladurner, Ruth
Seehofer, Daniel
Nussler, Andreas
Sajadian, Sahar
author_facet Ruoß, Marc
Damm, Georg
Vosough, Massoud
Ehret, Lisa
Grom-Baumgarten, Carl
Petkov, Martin
Naddalin, Silvio
Ladurner, Ruth
Seehofer, Daniel
Nussler, Andreas
Sajadian, Sahar
author_sort Ruoß, Marc
collection PubMed
description Although human liver tumor cells have reduced metabolic functions as compared to primary human hepatocytes (PHH) they are widely used for pre-screening tests of drug metabolism and toxicity. The aim of the present study was to modify liver cancer cell lines in order to improve their drug-metabolizing activities towards PHH. It is well-known that epigenetics is strongly modified in tumor cells and that epigenetic regulators influence the expression and function of Cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes through altering crucial transcription factors responsible for drug-metabolizing enzymes. Therefore, we screened the epigenetic status of four different liver cancer cell lines (Huh7, HLE, HepG2 and AKN-1) which were reported to have metabolizing drug activities. Our results showed that HepG2 cells demonstrated the highest similarity compared to PHH. Thus, we modified the epigenetic status of HepG2 cells towards ‘normal’ liver cells by 5-Azacytidine (5-AZA) and Vitamin C exposure. Then, mRNA expression of Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) marker SNAIL and CYP enzymes were measured by PCR and determinate specific drug metabolites, associated with CYP enzymes by LC/MS. Our results demonstrated an epigenetic shift in HepG2 cells towards PHH after exposure to 5-AZA and Vitamin C which resulted in a higher expression and activity of specific drug metabolizing CYP enzymes. Finally, we observed that 5-AZA and Vitamin C led to an increased expression of Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4α (HNF4α) and E-Cadherin and a significant down regulation of Snail1 (SNAIL), the key transcriptional repressor of E-Cadherin. Our study shows, that certain phase I genes and their enzyme activities are increased by epigenetic modification in HepG2 cells with a concomitant reduction of EMT marker gene SNAIL. The enhancing of liver specific functions in hepatoma cells using epigenetic modifiers opens new opportunities for the usage of cell lines as a potential liver in vitro model for drug testing and development.
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spelling pubmed-63587892019-02-06 Epigenetic Modifications of the Liver Tumor Cell Line HepG2 Increase Their Drug Metabolic Capacity Ruoß, Marc Damm, Georg Vosough, Massoud Ehret, Lisa Grom-Baumgarten, Carl Petkov, Martin Naddalin, Silvio Ladurner, Ruth Seehofer, Daniel Nussler, Andreas Sajadian, Sahar Int J Mol Sci Article Although human liver tumor cells have reduced metabolic functions as compared to primary human hepatocytes (PHH) they are widely used for pre-screening tests of drug metabolism and toxicity. The aim of the present study was to modify liver cancer cell lines in order to improve their drug-metabolizing activities towards PHH. It is well-known that epigenetics is strongly modified in tumor cells and that epigenetic regulators influence the expression and function of Cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes through altering crucial transcription factors responsible for drug-metabolizing enzymes. Therefore, we screened the epigenetic status of four different liver cancer cell lines (Huh7, HLE, HepG2 and AKN-1) which were reported to have metabolizing drug activities. Our results showed that HepG2 cells demonstrated the highest similarity compared to PHH. Thus, we modified the epigenetic status of HepG2 cells towards ‘normal’ liver cells by 5-Azacytidine (5-AZA) and Vitamin C exposure. Then, mRNA expression of Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) marker SNAIL and CYP enzymes were measured by PCR and determinate specific drug metabolites, associated with CYP enzymes by LC/MS. Our results demonstrated an epigenetic shift in HepG2 cells towards PHH after exposure to 5-AZA and Vitamin C which resulted in a higher expression and activity of specific drug metabolizing CYP enzymes. Finally, we observed that 5-AZA and Vitamin C led to an increased expression of Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4α (HNF4α) and E-Cadherin and a significant down regulation of Snail1 (SNAIL), the key transcriptional repressor of E-Cadherin. Our study shows, that certain phase I genes and their enzyme activities are increased by epigenetic modification in HepG2 cells with a concomitant reduction of EMT marker gene SNAIL. The enhancing of liver specific functions in hepatoma cells using epigenetic modifiers opens new opportunities for the usage of cell lines as a potential liver in vitro model for drug testing and development. MDPI 2019-01-16 /pmc/articles/PMC6358789/ /pubmed/30654452 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms20020347 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ruoß, Marc
Damm, Georg
Vosough, Massoud
Ehret, Lisa
Grom-Baumgarten, Carl
Petkov, Martin
Naddalin, Silvio
Ladurner, Ruth
Seehofer, Daniel
Nussler, Andreas
Sajadian, Sahar
Epigenetic Modifications of the Liver Tumor Cell Line HepG2 Increase Their Drug Metabolic Capacity
title Epigenetic Modifications of the Liver Tumor Cell Line HepG2 Increase Their Drug Metabolic Capacity
title_full Epigenetic Modifications of the Liver Tumor Cell Line HepG2 Increase Their Drug Metabolic Capacity
title_fullStr Epigenetic Modifications of the Liver Tumor Cell Line HepG2 Increase Their Drug Metabolic Capacity
title_full_unstemmed Epigenetic Modifications of the Liver Tumor Cell Line HepG2 Increase Their Drug Metabolic Capacity
title_short Epigenetic Modifications of the Liver Tumor Cell Line HepG2 Increase Their Drug Metabolic Capacity
title_sort epigenetic modifications of the liver tumor cell line hepg2 increase their drug metabolic capacity
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6358789/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30654452
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms20020347
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