Jiehuan Xu, Jianlin Chen, Dao Wang, Yaojun Li, Ping Lian, Xiaozhu Wu, Rong Yan
{"title":"Nafamostat mesylate sensitizes ovarian cancer cells to carboplatin by promoting the ZNF24-mediated inhibition of WNT2B.","authors":"Jiehuan Xu, Jianlin Chen, Dao Wang, Yaojun Li, Ping Lian, Xiaozhu Wu, Rong Yan","doi":"10.2131/jts.49.467","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2131/jts.49.467","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Resistance to chemotherapeutic medicines complicates and eventually kills people with ovarian cancer. Nafamostat mesylate (NM) has been used as an adjuvant therapy to enhance chemotherapy sensitivity in several cancers. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of NM on ovarian cancer cells susceptible to carboplatin (CBP) and to determine the underlying mechanism involved. Herein, qRT-PCR, western blot, and IHC were used to analyze mRNA and protein expression. Cell viability and proliferation were measured using the MTT and colony formation assays. Cell migration and invasion were examined using the Transwell assay. Flow cytometry was employed to detect cell apoptosis. The interaction between zinc finger protein 24 (ZNF24) and wingless-type MMTV integration site family member 2b (WNT2B) was validated via the dual-luciferase reporter and Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. A xenograft nude mouse model was used to assess the effect of NM on CBP sensitivity in vivo. Our results showed that NM intervention inhibited the viability, proliferation, migration, and invasion and facilitated the apoptosis of CBP-resistant ovarian cancer cells. Furthermore, NM sensitized ovarian cancer cells to CBP by upregulating ZNF24. ZNF24 inactivated Wnt/β-catenin signaling by inhibiting the transcription of WNT2B. Additionally, NM enhanced the inhibitory effect of CBP on tumor growth in vivo. Taken together, NM enhanced the CBP sensitivity of ovarian cancer cells by promoting the ZNF24-mediated inactivation of the WNT2B/Wnt/β-catenin axis. These findings suggest a viable treatment approach for improving CBP resistance in ovarian cancer.</p>","PeriodicalId":17654,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Toxicological Sciences","volume":"49 11","pages":"467-479"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142576042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A single dose of clothianidin exposure induces varying sex-specific behavioral changes in adulthood depending on the developmental stage of its administration.","authors":"Kenshi Kaku, Takahiro Sasaki, Kenshiro Hara, Kentaro Tanemura","doi":"10.2131/jts.49.301","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2131/jts.49.301","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Clothianidin (CLO), a neonicotinoid that is widely used in forests and agricultural areas, was recently reported to cause toxicity in mammals. Although sensitivity to chemicals varies between sexes and developmental stages, studies that comprehensively evaluate both males and females are limited. Therefore, in this study we utilized murine models to compare the sex-specific differences in behavioral effects following CLO exposure at different developmental stages. We orally administered CLO to male and female mice as a single high-dose solution (80 mg/kg) during the postnatal period (2-week-old), adolescence (6-week-old), or maturity (10-week-old), and subsequently evaluated higher brain function. The behavioral battery test consisted of open field, light/dark transition, and contextual/cued fear conditioning tests conducted at three and seven months of age. After the behavioral test, the brains were dissected and prepared for immunohistochemical staining. We observed behavioral abnormalities in anxiety, spatial memory, and cued memory only in female mice. Moreover, the immunohistochemical analysis showed a reduction in astrocytes within the hippocampus of female mice with behavioral abnormalities. The behavioral abnormalities observed in female CLO-treated mice were consistent with the typical behavioral abnormalities associated with hippocampal astrocyte dysfunction. It is therefore possible that the CLO-induced behavioral abnormalities are at least in part related to a reduction in astrocyte numbers. The results of this study highlight the differences in behavioral effects following CLO exposure between sexes and developmental stages.</p>","PeriodicalId":17654,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Toxicological Sciences","volume":"49 7","pages":"301-311"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141469108","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Effects of food restriction on toxicological parameters in juvenile rats.","authors":"Yuko Izumi, Tomoya Sano, Yusuke Sudo, Kiyoshi Matsumoto","doi":"10.2131/jts.49.321","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2131/jts.49.321","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>To examine the effects of decreased food consumption on toxicological parameters in juvenile rats, rats on postnatal day 21 were fed 40%, 50% (only four weeks), and 60% less food, compared to that of controls for four or eight weeks, and clinical observations, measurement of body and organ weights, morphological differentiation analysis, clinical pathology, and macroscopic and microscopic examinations were conducted. The body weight decreased depending on the degree of food restriction (FR). Cleavage of the balano-preputial skinfold was delayed, and cell debris in the epididymal lumen was noted as a related finding after four-week FR. Vaginal opening was also delayed, and some histopathological findings, such as absence of corpus luteum in the ovary, mucinous degeneration in the vagina, and immature uterus, were noted after eight-week FR. Erythrocyte count increased after four-week FR, but slightly decreased in males only after eight-week FR, and decreased leukocyte and/or reticulocyte counts, accompanied by related histopathological findings were noted after four- and eight-week FR. In blood chemistry, the levels of total protein including globulin, glucose, triglyceride, and calcium decreased, and sodium and chloride increased after four- and eight-week FR. Increases in activities of aspartate transaminase and lactate dehydrogenase and total bilirubin levels were noted after four-week FR, which were attenuated after eight-week FR. The effects of FR seemed to be more remarkable after four weeks. In drug safety evaluation, findings caused by malnutrition should be considered in juvenile toxicity studies when decreased food consumption is observed.</p>","PeriodicalId":17654,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Toxicological Sciences","volume":"49 7","pages":"321-335"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141469110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bridging toxicological properties of environmental chemicals between animals and humans using healthy organoid systems.","authors":"Toshio Imai, Rikako Ishigamori, Mie Naruse, Masako Ochiai, Yoshiaki Maru, Yoshitaka Hippo, Yukari Totsuka","doi":"10.2131/jts.49.425","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2131/jts.49.425","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The application of organoids derived from animal tissues and human-induced pluripotent stem cells to safety assessments of environmental chemicals has been introduced over the last decade. One of the objectives of this approach is to develop an alternative method for animal toxicological studies, while another is to focus on the local reactions of chemicals in each organ/tissue. One of the most important goals is bridging the toxicological properties of chemicals between animals and humans, which may be compared on a level playing field using healthy organoids derived from both animals and humans in vitro, excluding species difference in the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion properties of chemicals in vivo. An overview of the application of organoid systems to safety assessments of environmental chemicals, including general toxicology, developmental toxicology, carcinogenicity, and mutagenicity, was provided herein, and bridging strategies using both animal and human organoids are proposed as a future perspective.</p>","PeriodicalId":17654,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Toxicological Sciences","volume":"49 10","pages":"425-434"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142365661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Impact of selenium content in fetal bovine serum on ferroptosis susceptibility and selenoprotein expression in cultured cells.","authors":"Hayato Takashima, Takashi Toyama, Eikan Mishima, Kei Ishida, Yinuo Wang, Atsuya Ichikawa, Junya Ito, Syunsuke Yogiashi, Stephanie Siu, Mayumi Sugawara, Satoru Shiina, Kotoko Arisawa, Marcus Conrad, Yoshiro Saito","doi":"10.2131/jts.49.555","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2131/jts.49.555","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Ferroptosis, a mode of cell death involving iron-dependent lipid peroxidation, has attracted widespread attention in the development of anticancer drugs and toxicological studies as a potential mechanism of chemical-induced cytotoxicity. This process is regulated by several antioxidant enzymes, of which the selenium-containing glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPx4) is the prime regulator. However, accurately and reproducibly evaluating ferroptosis in cultured cells is challenging since numerous experimental factors in in vitro setting can influence the results. In the present study, we found that the expression levels of selenoproteins, such as GPx4 and GPx1, fluctuate across several cell lines depending on the selenium content of different origin of fetal bovine serum (FBS). Cells cultured in FBS containing higher selenium concentrations exhibited elevated GPx4 expression, and were resistant to ferroptosis induced by erastin and RSL3. These findings suggest that the variability of selenium content in different FBS batches can significantly influence the susceptibility of cells to ferroptosis, highlighting the importance of standardizing these factors to enhance the reproducibility of ferroptosis-related experiments.</p>","PeriodicalId":17654,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Toxicological Sciences","volume":"49 12","pages":"555-563"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142770100","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Octanol/water partition coefficients estimated using retention times in reverse-phase liquid chromatography and calculated in silico as one of the determinant factors for pharmacokinetic parameter estimations of general chemical substances.","authors":"Koichiro Adachi, Makiko Shimizu, Fumiaki Shono, Kimito Funatsu, Hiroshi Yamazaki","doi":"10.2131/jts.49.127","DOIUrl":"10.2131/jts.49.127","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The octanol/water partition coefficient P (logP) is a hydrophobicity index and is one of the determining factors for the pharmacokinetics of orally administered substances because it influences membrane permeability. To illustrate the wide-ranging variety of compounds in the chemical space, a two-dimensional data plot consisting of 25 blocks was previously proposed based on a substance's in silico chemical descriptors. The logP values of approximately 200 diverse chemicals (test plus reference compounds covering all 25 blocks of the chemical space) were estimated experimentally using retention times in reverse-phase liquid chromatography; these values were compared with those of authentic reference compounds with established logP values (available for 17 of 60 reference substances in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Test Guideline 117). The logP values of 140 of 165 chemicals successfully estimated using four different mobile phase conditions (pH 2, 4, 7, and 10 for molecular forms) correlated significantly with those calculated using the in silico packages ChemDraw and ACD/Percepta (r > 0.72). Although substances that neighbored authentic compounds in the chemical space had precisely correlated logP values estimated experimentally and in silico, some compounds that were more distant from authentic substances showed lower logP values than those estimated in silico. These results indicate that additional authentic reference materials with wider ranging chemical diversity and their logP values from reverse-phase liquid chromatography should be included in the international test guidance to promote simple and reliable estimation of octanol/water partition coefficients, which are important determinant factors for the pharmacokinetics of general chemicals.</p>","PeriodicalId":17654,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Toxicological Sciences","volume":"49 4","pages":"127-137"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140331864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"DTox: A deep neural network-based in visio lens for large scale toxicogenomics data.","authors":"Takeshi Hase, Samik Ghosh, Ken-Ichi Aisaki, Satoshi Kitajima, Jun Kanno, Hiroaki Kitano, Ayako Yachie","doi":"10.2131/jts.49.105","DOIUrl":"10.2131/jts.49.105","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>With the advancement of large-scale omics technologies, particularly transcriptomics data sets on drug and treatment response repositories available in public domain, toxicogenomics has emerged as a key field in safety pharmacology and chemical risk assessment. Traditional statistics-based bioinformatics analysis poses challenges in its application across multidimensional toxicogenomic data, including administration time, dosage, and gene expression levels. Motivated by the visual inspection workflow of field experts to augment their efficiency of screening significant genes to derive meaningful insights, together with the ability of deep neural architectures to learn the image signals, we developed DTox, a deep neural network-based in visio approach. Using the Percellome toxicogenomics database, instead of utilizing the numerical gene expression values of the transcripts (gene probes of the microarray) for dose-time combinations, DTox learned the image representation of 3D surface plots of distinct time and dosage data points to train the classifier on the experts' labels of gene probe significance. DTox outperformed statistical threshold-based bioinformatics and machine learning approaches based on numerical expression values. This result shows the ability of image-driven neural networks to overcome the limitations of classical numeric value-based approaches. Further, by augmenting the model with explainability modules, our study showed the potential to reveal the visual analysis process of human experts in toxicogenomics through the model weights. While the current work demonstrates the application of the DTox model in toxicogenomic studies, it can be further generalized as an in visio approach for multi-dimensional numeric data with applications in various fields in medical data sciences.</p>","PeriodicalId":17654,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Toxicological Sciences","volume":"49 3","pages":"105-115"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140022109","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tohta Mizushima, Sho Kubota, Yuta Iijima, Nobumasa Takasugi, Takashi Uehara
{"title":"Transcriptome analysis in various cell lines exposed to nitric oxide.","authors":"Tohta Mizushima, Sho Kubota, Yuta Iijima, Nobumasa Takasugi, Takashi Uehara","doi":"10.2131/jts.49.281","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2131/jts.49.281","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Nitric oxide (NO) plays a physiological role in signal transduction and excess or chronic NO has toxic effects as an inflammatory mediator. NO reversibly forms protein S-nitrosylation and exerts toxicological functions related to disease progression. DNA methyltransferases, epigenome-related enzymes, are inhibited in enzymatic activity by S-nitrosylation. Therefore, excess or chronic NO exposure may cause disease by altering gene expression. However, the effects of chronic NO exposure on transcriptome are poorly understood. Here, we performed transcriptome analysis of A549, AGS, HEK293T, and SW48 cells exposed to NO (100 μM) for 48 hr. We showed that the differentially expressed genes were cell-specific. Gene ontology analysis showed that the functional signature of differentially expressed genes related to cell adhesion or migration was upregulated in several cell lines. Gene set enrichment analysis indicated that NO stimulated inflammation-related gene expression in various cell lines. This finding supports previous studies showing that NO is closely involved in inflammatory diseases. Overall, this study elucidates the pathogenesis of NO-associated inflammatory diseases by focusing on changes in gene expression.</p>","PeriodicalId":17654,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Toxicological Sciences","volume":"49 6","pages":"281-288"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141199737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"MiR-98-3p alleviates lipopolysaccharide-induced pulmonary microvascular endothelial barrier dysfunction by targeting DKK3 in sepsis-induced acute lung injury.","authors":"Dan Zhong, Cong Luo, Neng Wang, Jie Lin","doi":"10.2131/jts.49.289","DOIUrl":"10.2131/jts.49.289","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Endothelial barrier dysfunction is critical for the pathogenesis of sepsis-induced acute lung injury (ALI). Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (HPMECs) are widely used as the cell model of sepsis-associated ALI for exploration of endothelial barrier dysfunction. Dickkopf (DKK) family proteins were reported to mediate endothelial functions in various diseases. The present study explored the effect of Dickkopf-3 (DKK3) on endothelial barrier permeability, angiogenesis, and tight junctions in LPS-stimulated HPMECs.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>RT-qPCR was required for detecting DKK3 and miR-98-3p expression. The angiogenesis of HPMECs was evaluated by tube formation assays. Monolayer permeability of HPMECs was examined by Transwell rhodamine assays. The protein expression of DKK3 and tight junctions in HPMECs was measured via western blotting. Luciferase reporter assay was used to verify the interaction between miR-98-3p and DKK3.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>LPS treatment inhibited angiogenetic ability while increasing the permeability of HPMECs. DKK3 expression was upregulated while miR-98-3p level was reduced in LPS-treated HPMECs. DKK3 knockdown alleviated HPMEC injury triggered by LPS stimulation. MiR-98-3p targeted DKK3 in HPMECs. Overexpression of miR-98-3p protects HPMECs from the LPS-induced endothelial barrier dysfunction, and the protective effect was reversed by DKK3 overexpression.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>MiR-98-3p ameliorates LPS-evoked pulmonary microvascular endothelial barrier dysfunction in sepsis-associated ALI by targeting DKK3.</p>","PeriodicalId":17654,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Toxicological Sciences","volume":"49 7","pages":"289-299"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141469111","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yuta Iijima, Ryohei Miki, Masatake Fujimura, Seiichi Oyadomari, Takashi Uehara
{"title":"Methylmercury-induced brain neuronal death in CHOP-knockout mice.","authors":"Yuta Iijima, Ryohei Miki, Masatake Fujimura, Seiichi Oyadomari, Takashi Uehara","doi":"10.2131/jts.49.55","DOIUrl":"10.2131/jts.49.55","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Apoptosis is one of the hallmarks of MeHg-induced neuronal cell death; however, its molecular mechanism remains unclear. We previously reported that MeHg exposure induces neuron-specific ER stress in the mouse brain. Excessive ER stress contributes to apoptosis, and CHOP induction is considered to be one of the major mechanisms. CHOP is also increased by MeHg exposure in the mouse brain, suggesting that it correlates with increased apoptosis. In this study, to clarify whether CHOP mediates MeHg-induced apoptosis, we examined the effect of CHOP deletion on MeHg exposure in CHOP-knockout mice. Our data showed that CHOP deletion had no effect on MeHg exposure-induced weight loss or hindlimb impairment in mice, nor did it increase apoptosis or inhibit neuronal cell loss. Hence, CHOP plays little role in MeHg toxicity, and other apoptotic pathways coupled with ER stress may be involved in MeHg-induced cell death.</p>","PeriodicalId":17654,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Toxicological Sciences","volume":"49 2","pages":"55-60"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139697759","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}