ABSTRACT:Inflammation or infection down-regulates the activity and expression of cytochrome P450 (P450) enzymes involved in hepatic drug clearance, possibly altering drug effectiveness and leading to toxicity. The regulation of UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) in inflammation and infection is less well characterized. To determine the response of hepatic and renal UGTs during inflammation and infection, mice were administered either saline or 1 mg/kg lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (16 h), or Citrobacter rodentium by oral gavage (6 days). Hepatic mRNA expression of UGT1A1, 1A9, and 2B5 was similarly down-regulated after LPS exposure and C. rodentium infection, whereas UGT1A2 and 1A6 mRNAs were unchanged. Effects of C. rodentium infection did not require a functional Toll-like receptor 4. Conversely, renal UGT isoforms were relatively unaffected, except for UGT2B5 induction after LPS treatment. Regulation of UGTs during the inflammatory response exhibits similarities to and differences from regulation of P450s, and may be cytokinemediated.UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) reside in the endoplasmic reticulum and catalyze the biotransformation of a variety of substrates (Wells et al., 2004). Addition of glucuronic acid by UGTs generally increases the water solubility of compounds for subsequent excretion in bile or urine. UGTs have multiple constitutive and inducible isoforms with overlapping substrate specificities, and are expressed in both hepatic and extrahepatic tissues (Wells et al., 2004).Inflammation and infection can alter drug metabolism in humans and rodents, resulting in significantly increased or decreased drug efficacy and potential toxicity. Both cytochrome P450 (P450) expression and metabolic activities in liver and extrahepatic tissues can be down-regulated during inflammation Renton, 2004). However, little is known regarding UGT activities during the inflammatory response. Because hepatic P450 metabolism is significantly suppressed during inflammation, hepatic glucuronidation may be similarly affected and may contribute to alterations in drug efficacy.Injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a widely used model of inflammation and is well characterized regarding its effects on basal and inducible hepatic P450 expression. Many in vivo effects of LPS-induced inflammation are due to proinflammatory cytokines, and these cytokines mimic the effects of LPS when injected in vivo or incubated with hepatocytes Renton, 2004). In contrast to P450s, very little data exist on UGT regulation during LPS-induced inflammation. Significant decreases in hepatic UGT activities were reported after LPS administration in rats and isolated perfused mouse liver (Chen et al., 1992;Banhegyi et al., 1995), but no effect on UGTs was found in mouse hepatocytes (Banhegyi et al., 1995). Glucuronidation was unchanged after injection of individual cytokines in rats (Chen et al., 1992), yet it was inhibited in isolated pig hepatocytes after cytokine administration (Monshouwer et al., 1996). Even less information exists regar...