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Employment of liver tissue slice analysis to assay hepatotoxicity linked to replicative and nonreplicative adenoviral agents

Cancer Gene Therapy volume 13, pages 606–618 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Whereas virotherapy has emerged as a novel and promising approach for neoplastic diseases, appropriate model systems have hampered preclinical evaluation of candidate conditionally replicative adenovirus agents (CRAds) with respect to liver toxicity. This is due to the inability of human viral agents to cross species. We have recently shown the human liver tissue slice model to be a facile means to validate adenoviral replication. On this basis, we sought to determine whether our ex vivo liver tissue slice model could be used to assess CRAd-mediated liver toxicity. We analyzed and compared the toxicity of a conditionally replicative adenovirus (AdΔ24) to that of a replication incompetent adenovirus (Adnull [E1−]) in mouse and human liver tissue slices. To accomplish this, we examined the hepatic apoptosis expression profile by DNA microarray analyses, and compared these results to extracellular release of aminotransferase enzymes, along with direct evidence of apoptosis by caspase-3 immunhistochemical staining and TUNEL assays. Human and mouse liver tissue slices demonstrated a marked increase in extracellular release of aminotransferase enzymes on infection with AdΔ24 compared to Adnull. AdΔ24-mediated liver toxicity was further demonstrated by apoptosis induction, as detected by caspase-3 immunohistochemical staining, TUNEL assay and microarray analysis. In conclusion, concordance of CRAd-mediated apoptosis in both the human and the mouse liver tissue slice models was demonstrated, despite the limited replication ability of CRAds in mouse liver slices. The results of this study, defining the CRAd-mediated apoptosis gene expression profiles in human and mouse liver, may lay a foundation for preclinical liver toxicity analysis of CRAd agents.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Grant of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Sto 647/1-1 (to MA Stoff-Khalili), NIH Grant R01-DK063615 (to M Yamamoto), NIH Grant RO1CA93796 (to GP Siegal), NIH Grants RO1-CA083821, RO1-CA94084, RO1-CA93796 and Mesothelioma grant (to DT Curiel). We thank Minghui Wang and Cecil R Stockard for invaluable technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Human Gene Therapy, Departments of Medicine, Obstetrics, Pathology, Cellular Biology, Surgery and the Gene Therapy Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

    M A Stoff-Khalili, A A Rivera, L P Le, A Stoff, M Everts, J L Contreras, R P Rocconi, M Yamamoto, G P Siegal & D T Curiel

  2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Duesseldorf, Medical Center, Duesseldorf, Germany

    M A Stoff-Khalili, G J Bauerschmitz, D T Rein & P Dall

  3. Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Dreifaltigkeits-Hospital, Wesseling, Germany

    A Stoff

  4. Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Unit, Comprehensive Cancer Center, UAB, Birmingham, AL, USA

    D Chen

  5. Microarray Shared Facility, Comprehensive Cancer Center, UAB, Birmingham, AL, USA

    D Chen & L Teng

  6. Department of Therapeutic Gene Modulation, Groningen University, Institute for Drug Exploration, Groningen, The Netherlands

    M G Rots & H J Haisma

  7. Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, LA, USA

    J Michael Mathis

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  1. M A Stoff-Khalili
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Correspondence to D T Curiel.

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Stoff-Khalili, M., Rivera, A., Le, L. et al. Employment of liver tissue slice analysis to assay hepatotoxicity linked to replicative and nonreplicative adenoviral agents. Cancer Gene Ther 13, 606–618 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.cgt.7700934

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.cgt.7700934

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