Sub-acute exposure effect of selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on protein levels of epigenetic modifiers in non-cancerous hepatic model

Abstract

It has been proposed that in the first stage of carcinogenesis, the progenitor cell may have epigenetics changes before acquisition of mutations, driving the cell to acquire malignant characteristics. Some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are carcinogenic compounds, like benzofluorene, benzo (a) pyrene, 3-methylcholanthrene, and 7, 12-dimethylbenzanthracene, which can also produce such mutations, therefore, that epigenetic changes may be favoured in the presence of these molecules. Here, normal rat liver epithelial cell cultures were exposed in a sub-acute way to these selected PAH in order to evaluate changes in the level of proteins involved in the modification of epigenetic changes, such as epigenetic modifiers proteins. In spite that these compounds are structurally related, have similar metabolism pathways and are ligands of same nuclear receptor, they exhibit a different pre-mutational insult to DNA. In consequence, the results show that at least BaP, BF and DMBA modified with a different pattern the protein levels of epigenetic modifiers proteins.