Hormonal regulation of the zonated expression of cytochrome P-450 3A in rat liver

Abstract

Most cytochrome P-450 enzymes are expressed characteristically in a zonated pattern in the liver. The factors responsible for this heterogenous expression are largely unknown. Here we report how growth hormone and tri-iodothyronine regulate the steroid-hydroxylating cytochrome P-450 (CYP) 3A forms, which are constitutively expressed mainly in the perivenous (downstream) liver region. By comparing cell lysates obtained from the periportal and perivenous acinar regions we observed that the elevated CYP3A expression observed after hypophysectomy was due mainly to a dramatic increase in the normally silent periportal region. This effect was particularly strong in females. Treatment with growth hormone re-established the perivenous expression pattern, a finding corroborated by immunohistochemical analysis of liver sections. Analysis of periportal and perivenous mRNA by reverse-transcriptase PCR demonstrated that in males the changes in CYP3A2 mRNA paralleled the changes at the protein level. In females, CYP3A2 mRNA was detected only after hypophysectomy, and the zonal protein changes seemed to be governed by changes in CYP3A1 mRNA levels. Treatment of hypophysectomized animals with tri-iodothyronine also suppressed the expression of CYP3A, both in males and females. However, this occurred almost exclusively in the periportal region. This was observed both at the protein level, as determined by immunoblotting and immunohistochemically, and at the CYP3A1 and 3A2 mRNA level. These results indicate that growth hormone and thyroid hormone regulate the expression of CYP3A genes zone-specifically by suppressing their transcription in the periportal (upstream) region of the liver.