Mouse liver effects of cyproconazole, a triazole fungicide: role of the constitutive androstane receptor.

Cyproconazole, a triazole fungicide, causes hepatocellular adenomas and carcinomas in CD-1 mice at dose levels of 100 and 200 ppm. The constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) has been shown to play a significant role in the overall mode of action for several nongenotoxic rodent carcinogens such as phenobarbital. The liver effects of dietary cyproconazole or phenobarbital were investigated after 2, 7, or 14 days in male CD-1, C57BL/6J, and C3H/HeNClrBR mice. Cyproconazole produced similar, dose-responsive effects in all three strains of mice, and the response was similar to that of phenobarbital. Subsequently, Car-null and wild-type male mice on a C3H/HeNClrBR background were administered 200 or 450 ppm cyproconazole, or 850 ppm phenobarbital for up to 7 days. In wild-type mice, 200 ppm cyproconazole caused liver hypertrophy, increased liver weight and cell proliferation, single-cell necrosis and fat vacuolation, effects generally similar to those caused by 850 ppm phenobarbital. Plasma cholesterol was decreased by both compounds, but cyproconazole had a greater effect. The higher dose (450 ppm) of cyproconazole caused similar changes, but greater evidence of liver damage was observed, including a large increase in plasma transaminases. Induction of CAR target genes Cyp2b10 and Gadd45beta was observed with both compounds, whereas the cell cycle regulatory gene Mdm2 was unaffected. In Car-null mice, the effects noted with either cyproconazole or phenobarbital were absent or greatly diminished. These experiments demonstrate that short-term liver effects of cyproconazole in mice are CAR-dependent and similar to those of phenobarbital, a known nongenotoxic rodent liver carcinogen.

Thiamethoxam induced mouse liver tumors and their relevance to humans. Part 2: species differences in response.

Thiamethoxam is a neonicotinoid insecticide that is not a mutagen, but it did cause a significant increase in liver cancer in mice, but not rats, in chronic dietary feeding studies. Previous studies in mice have characterized a carcinogenicity mode of action that involved depletion of plasma cholesterol, cell death, both as single cell necrosis and as apoptosis, and sustained increases in cell replication rates. In a study reported in this article, female rats have been exposed to thiamethoxam in their diet at concentrations of 0, 1000, and 3000 ppm for 50 weeks, a study design directly comparable to the mouse study in which the mode of action changes were characterized. In rats, thiamethoxam had no adverse effects on either the biochemistry or histopathology of the liver at any time point during the study. Cell replication rates were not increased, in fact they were significantly decreased at several time points. The lack of effect on the rat liver is entirely consistent with the lack of liver tumor formation in the two-year cancer bioassay. Comparisons of the metabolism of thiamethoxam in rats and mice have shown that concentrations of the parent chemical were either similar or higher in rat blood than in mouse blood in both single dose and the dietary studies strongly indicating that thiamethoxam itself is unlikely to play a role in the development of liver tumors. In contrast, the concentrations of the two metabolites, CGA265307 and CGA330050, shown to play a role in the development of liver damage in the mouse, were 140- (CGA265307) and 15- (CGA330050) fold lower in rats than in mice following either a single oral dose, or dietary administration of thiamethoxam for up to 50 weeks. Comparisons of the major metabolic pathways of thiamethoxam in vitro using mouse, rat, and human liver fractions have shown that metabolic rates in humans are lower than those in the rat suggesting that thiamethoxam is unlikely to pose a hazard to humans exposed to this chemical at the low concentrations found in the environment or during its use as an insecticide.

Thiamethoxam induced mouse liver tumors and their relevance to humans. Part 1: mode of action studies in the mouse.

Thiamethoxam, a neonicotinoid insecticide, which is not mutagenic either in vitro or in vivo, caused an increased incidence of liver tumors in mice when fed in the diet for 18 months at concentrations in the range 500 to 2500 ppm. A number of dietary studies of up to 50 weeks duration have been conducted in order to identify the mode of action for the development of the liver tumors seen at the end of the cancer bioassay. Both thiamethoxam and its major metabolites have been tested in these studies. Over the duration of a 50-week thiamethoxam dietary feeding study in mice, the earliest change, within one week, is a marked reduction (by up to 40%) in plasma cholesterol. This was followed 10 weeks later by evidence of liver toxicity including single cell necrosis and an increase in apoptosis. After 20 weeks there was a significant increase in hepatic cell replication rates. All of these changes persisted from the time they were first observed until the end of the study at 50 weeks. They occurred in a dose-dependent manner and were only observed at doses (500, 1250, 2500 ppm) where liver tumors were increased in the cancer bioassay. There was a clear no-effect level of 200 ppm. The changes seen in this study are consistent with the development of liver cancer in mice and form the basis of the mode of action. When the major metabolites of thiamethoxam, CGA322704, CGA265307, and CGA330050 were tested in dietary feeding studies of up to 20 weeks duration, only metabolite CGA330050 induced the same changes as those seen in the liver in the thiamethoxam feeding study. It was concluded that thiamethoxam is hepatotoxic and hepatocarcinogenic as a result of its metabolism to CGA330050. Metabolite CGA265307 was also shown to be an inhibitor of inducible nitric oxide synthase and to increase the hepatotoxicity of carbon tetrachloride. It is proposed that CGA265307, through its effects on nitric oxide synthase, exacerbates the toxicity of CGA330050 in thiamethoxam treated mice.