Analysis of gene expression changes in relation to toxicity and tumorigenesis in the livers of Big Blue transgenic rats fed comfrey (Symphytum officinale).
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BACKGROUND: Comfrey is consumed by humans as a vegetable and a tea, and has been used as an herbal medicine for more than 2000 years. Comfrey, however, is hepatotoxic in livestock and humans and carcinogenic in experimental animals. Our previous study suggested that comfrey induces liver tumors by a genotoxic mechanism and that the pyrrolizidine alkaloids in the plant are responsible for mutation induction and tumor initiation in rat liver. RESULTS: In this study, we identified comfrey-induced gene expression profile in the livers of rats. Groups of 6 male transgenic Big Blue rats were fed a basal diet and a diet containing 8% comfrey roots, a dose that resulted in liver tumors in a previous carcinogenicity bioassay. The animals were treated for 12 weeks and sacrificed one day after the final treatment. We used a rat microarray containing 26,857 genes to perform genome-wide gene expression studies. Dietary comfrey resulted in marked changes in liver gene expression, as well as in significant decreases in the body weight and increases in liver mutant frequency. When a two-fold cutoff value and a P-value less than 0.01 were selected, 2,726 genes were identified as differentially expressed in comfrey-fed rats compared to control animals. Among these genes, there were 1,617 genes associated by Ingenuity Pathway Analysis with particular functions, and the differentially expressed genes in comfrey-fed rat livers were involved in metabolism, injury of endothelial cells, and liver injury and abnormalities, including liver fibrosis and cancer development. CONCLUSION: The gene expression profile provides us a better understanding of underlying mechanisms for comfrey-induced hepatic toxicity. Integration of gene expression changes with known pathological changes can be used to formulate a mechanistic scheme for comfrey-induced liver toxicity and tumorigenesis. (+info)
Suppression of prostate cancer growth by resveratrol in the transgenic rat for adenocarcinoma of prostate (TRAP) model.
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Research into actions of resveratrol, abundantly present in red grape skin, has been greatly stimulated by its reported beneficial health influence. Since it was recently proposed as a potential prostate cancer chemopreventive agent, we here performed an in vivo experiment to explore its effect in the Transgenic Rat for Adenocarcinoma of Prostate (TRAP) model, featuring the rat probasin promoter/SV 40 T antigen. Resveratrol suppressed prostate cancer growth and induction of apoptosis through androgen receptor (AR) down-regulation, without any sign of toxicity. Resveratrol not only downregulated androgen receptor (AR) expression but also suppressed the androgen responsive glandular kallikrein 11 (Gk11), known to be an ortholog of the human prostate specific antigen (PSA), at the mRNA level. The data provide a mechanistic basis for resveratrol chemopreventive efficacy against prostate cancer. (+info)
Autologous and allogeneic marrow stromal cells are safe and effective for the treatment of acute kidney injury.
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Hepatic metabolism and biliary excretion of silymarin flavonolignans in isolated perfused rat livers: role of multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 (Abcc2).
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