Isoform-specific alanine aminotransferase measurement can distinguish hepatic from extrahepatic injury in humans.

Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) is used as a clinical marker to detect hepatic damage and hepatoxicity. Two isoforms of ALT have been identified, ALT1 and ALT2, which have identical enzymatic capacities and are detected simultaneously in human serum/plasma using classical clinical chemical assays. Differences exist in the expression patterns of the ALT1 and ALT2 proteins in different organs which suggest that changes in the proportion of ALT1 and ALT2 in plasma may arise and reflect damage to different human organs. However, this has not been previously studied due to the lack of a selective methodology that can quantify both ALT1 and ALT2 isoforms in the total ALT activity normally measured in clinical samples. To the best of our knowledge, our current study reveals for the first time, that under 3 different conditions of liver damage (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, hepatitis C and during liver surgery) the leakage of ALT1 activity into plasma greatly exceeds that of ALT2, and that the measurement of ALT1 during liver damage is equal to the measurement of total ALT activity. By contrast, during skeletal muscle injury, induced in volunteers by physical exertion, the leakage of ALT2 exceeds that of ALT1 and the proportion of circulating ALT isoforms changes accordingly. The ALT isoform changes occurring in plasma reflect previously demonstrated relative contents of ALT1 and ALT2 activities in human liver and skeletal muscle. These data suggest that assessing the percentage contribution of ALT1 and ALT2 activities to total ALT activity in plasma may distinguish hepatic from extrahepatic injury using the same standard analytical platform.

Cross-talk between glucocorticoid and retinoic acid signals involving glucocorticoid receptor interaction with the homoeodomain protein Pbx1.

Glucocorticoid (GC) signalling influences the response of the cell to a number of other signals via a mechanism referred to as 'cross-talk'. This cross-talk may act at several levels, including an interaction between the transcription factors involved in the signalling pathways. In the present paper, we demonstrate a novel functional interaction between GC and all- trans -retinoic acid (RA) signalling. We show that, in P19 embryonal carcinoma cells, GCs potentiate RA-induced expression of the murine Hoxb -1 gene through an autoregulatory element, b1-ARE, recognized by the Pbx1 and HOXB1 homoeodomain proteins. The synergistic effect of GC did not involve GC receptor (GR) binding to the b1-ARE, and the GC-GR complex alone was unable to activate transcription via the element. Furthermore, the ability of the GR to transactivate was not required, excluding expression of a GC-induced protein as the mechanism for the GC/RA synergy. Additional transfection experiments showed that the Pbx1/HOXB1 heterodimer was the target for the GC effect. Furthermore, functional dissection of the GR demonstrated that the DNA-binding domain (DBD) of the GR was required for the synergy. A physical interaction between the GR and Pbx1 proteins was demonstrated in vivo by co-immunoprecipitation experiments. These results are compatible with a model in which the GC/RA synergy is mediated by a direct interaction between the GR and Pbx1. On the basis of the ubiquitous expression of both GR and Pbx1, a number of genes regulated by Pbx are likely to be important targets for GC-mediated 'cross-talk'.