No abstract

A mouse model with a hypomorphic NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase (Cpr) gene (designated Cpr low allele) was generated and characterized in this study. The Cpr gene in these mice was disrupted by the insertion of a neo gene in intron 15, which led to 74 to 95% decreases in CPR expression in all tissues examined, including olfactory mucosa, adrenal gland, brain, testis, ovary, lung, kidney, liver, and heart. In the liver, a pattern of pericentral distribution of CPR protein was preserved in the Cpr low/low mice, despite an overall reduction in CPR expression. Genotype distribution in F2 pups indicated limited embryonic lethality associated with the Cpr low allele, a finding that confirms the role of CPR-dependent enzymes in development. Adult male homozygotes had decreased body weight and decreased heart, lung, and kidney weights, whereas homozygous Cpr low females, which had increased serum testosterone and progesterone and decreased copulatory activities, were infertile. Furthermore, adult Cpr low/low mice had decreased plasma cholesterol, and some mice developed mild centrilobular hepatic lipidosis. In addition, despite apparently compensatory increases in total microsomal cytochrome P450 content in the liver and kidney, the decreases in CPR expression were accompanied by reductions in systemic clearance of pentobarbital, as well as in hepatic microsomal metabolism of acetaminophen and testosterone. These phenotypes illustrate the potential impact of a globally decreased CPR activity in human adults, and this novel knock-in mouse model provides a unique opportunity for further explorations of the in vivo roles of CPR and CPR-dependent enzymes.

Acetaminophen overdose causes toxicity in liver and extrahepatic tissues. Although it is well established that cytochrome P450 enzymes play a critical role in the metabolic activation of acetaminophen, it is not yet clear whether acetaminophen toxicity in extrahepatic tissues is a consequence of hepatic biotransformation. The aim of this study was to determine whether extrahepatic acetaminophen toxicity is altered in a mouse model that has liver-specific deletion of the NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase (Cpr) gene. Liver-specific Cpr-null (Null) mice were resistant to acetaminophen hepatotoxicity, and they showed faster acetaminophen clearance than did wildtype mice at a toxic acetaminophen dose (400 mg/kg i.p.). However, when circulating acetaminophen levels were made equivalent in the two strains, the severity of extrahepatic acetaminophen toxicity was decreased in the Null relative to that in the wild-type mice in the lung, kidney, and lateral nasal glands, although not in the nasal olfactory and respiratory mucosa. In the lung and liver, the decreased acetaminophen toxicity was accompanied by substantial decreases in the formation of acetaminophen-protein adducts in the Null mice; adducts were not detected in other tissues examined. These results indicate that acetaminophen toxicity in the nasal mucosa is not dependent on hepatic microsomal P450-catalyzed metabolic activation and that acetaminophen toxicity in the lung, kidney, and lateral nasal glands is at least partly caused by liver-derived acetaminophen metabolites.