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Drug Metabolism and Disposition Fast Forward
First published on August 11, 2008; DOI: 10.1124/dmd.108.022335

0090-9556/08/3611-2331-2336$20.00
DMD 36:2331-2336, 2008

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The Expression of Most UDP-Glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) Is Increased Significantly during Caco-2 Cell Differentiation, whereas UGT1A6 Is Highly Expressed Also in Undifferentiated CellsFormula

Sanna Siissalo, Hongbo Zhang, Eric Stilgenbauer, Ann Marie Kaukonen, Jouni Hirvonen, and Moshe Finel

Division of Pharmaceutical Technology (S.S., E.S., J.H.), Centre for Drug Research (S.S., H.Z., A.M.K., M.F.), and Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry (H.Z.), Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

The human colon carcinoma cell line Caco-2 is often used as a model for intestinal drug absorption. To better understand xenobiotic glucuronidation in Caco-2 cells, we have examined the expression levels of different UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) in them. The effects of two main factors were investigated, namely, passage number and cell differentiation. Hence, the mRNA levels of 15 human UGTs of subfamilies 1A and 2B were assessed in both undifferentiated and fully differentiated cells at four passage levels: P31, P37, P43, and P49. Quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction was used to determine the mRNA levels of individual UGTs, and the values were normalized using β-actin as a reference gene. The results indicate that although passage number in the tested range exerts a mild effect on the expression level of several UGTs, the contribution of cell differentiation is much larger. The expression of nearly all the UGTs that were examined in this study was significantly, sometimes greatly, increased during cell differentiation. UGT1A6 was a distinct exception to this rule, however, because it was already highly expressed in the undifferentiated cells. The mRNA findings were confirmed at the enzyme activity level by measuring the glucuronidation of 1-naphthol, a very good substrate for UGT1A6, as well as estradiol that is not glucuronidated by this enzyme. The results revealed that 1-naphthol glucuronidation activity was high in both the differentiated and undifferentiated cells, whereas estradiol glucuronidation was only detected in the differentiated cells. Thus, Caco-2 cell differentiation plays a major role in UGT expression and ensuing metabolic reactions.

Address correspondence to: Moshe Finel, Centre for Drug Research (CDR), Faculty of Pharmacy, P.O. Box 56, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, FIN-00014, Finland. E-mail: moshe.finel{at}helsinki.fi






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