Mouse Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor Alpha Research Articles

The PPARα-Humanized Mouse: A Model to Investigate Species Differences in Liver Toxicity Mediated by PPARα

To determine the impact of the species difference between rodents and humans in response to peroxisome proliferators (PPs) mediated by peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)alpha, PPAR alpha-humanized transgenic mice were generated using a P1 phage artificial chromosome (PAC) genomic clone bred onto a ppar alpha-null mouse background, designated hPPAR alpha PAC. In hPPAR alpha PAC mice, the human PPAR alpha gene is expressed in tissues with high fatty acid catabolism and induced upon fasting, similar to mouse PPAR alpha in wild-type (Wt) mice. Upon treatment with the PP fenofibrate, hPPAR alpha PAC mice exhibited responses similar to Wt mice, including peroxisome proliferation, lowering of serum triglycerides, and induction of PPAR alpha target genes encoding enzymes involved in fatty acid metabolism in liver, kidney, and heart, suggesting that human PPAR alpha (hPPAR alpha) functions in the same manner as mouse PPAR alpha in regulating fatty acid metabolism and lowering serum triglycerides. However, in contrast to Wt mice, treatment of hPPAR alpha PAC mice with fenofibrate did not cause significant hepatomegaly and hepatocyte proliferation, thus indicating that the mechanisms by which PPAR alpha affects lipid metabolism are distinct from the hepatocyte proliferation response, the latter of which is only induced by mouse PPAR alpha. In addition, a differential regulation of several genes, including the oncogenic let-7C miRNA by PPs, was observed between Wt and hPPAR alpha PAC mice that may contribute to the inherent difference between mouse and human PPAR alpha in activation of hepatocellular proliferation. The hPPAR alpha PAC mouse model provides an in vivo platform to investigate the species difference mediated by PPAR alpha and an ideal model for human risk assessment PPs exposure.

Calcineurin and Calcium/Calmodulin-dependent Protein Kinase Activate Distinct Metabolic Gene Regulatory Programs in Cardiac Muscle

To learn more about the targets of Cn (Cn) and calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase in cardiac muscle, we investigated their actions in cultured cardiac myocytes and the hearts of mice in vivo. Adenoviral-mediated expression of constitutively active forms of either pathway induced expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1alpha, a transcriptional coactivator involved in the control of multiple cellular energy metabolic pathways in cardiac myocytes. Transcriptional profiling studies demonstrated that Cn and calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase activate distinct but overlapping metabolic gene regulatory programs. Expression of the nuclear receptor, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha, was markedly increased by Cn, but not calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase, providing one mechanism whereby cellular fatty acid utilization genes are selectively activated by Cn. Transfection experiments demonstrated that Cn directly activates the mouse peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha gene promoter. Co-transfection "add-back" experiments demonstrated that the transcription factors, myocyte enhancer factors 2C or 2D, were sufficient to confer Cn-mediated activation of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha gene. Cn was also shown to directly activate a known peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha target, muscle-type carnitine palmitoyltransferase I, providing a second mechanism by which Cn activates genes of cellular fatty acid utilization. Lastly, the gene expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1alpha and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha was reduced in the hearts of mice with cardiac-specific ablation of the Cn regulatory subunit. These data support a role for calcium-triggered signaling pathways in the regulation of cardiac energetics and identify pathway-specific control of metabolic targets.

The CYP4A Isoforms Hydroxylate Epoxyeicosatrienoic Acids to Form High Affinity Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor Ligands

Cytochromes P450 of the CYP2C and CYP4A gene subfamilies metabolize arachidonic acid to 5,6-, 8,9-, 11,12-, and 14,15-epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) and to 19- and 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (HETEs), respectively. Abundant functional studies indicate that EETs and HETEs display powerful and often opposing biological activities as mediators of ion channel activity and regulators of vascular tone and systemic blood pressures. Incubation of 8,9-, 11,12-, and 14,15-EETs with microsomal and purified forms of rat CYP4A isoforms led to rapid NADPH-dependent metabolism to the corresponding 19- and 20-hydroxylated EETs. Comparisons of reaction rates and catalytic efficiency with those of arachidonic and lauric acids showed that EETs are one of the best endogenous substrates so far described for rat CYP4A isoforms. CYP4A1 exhibited a preference for 8,9-EET, whereas CYP4A2, CYP4A3, and CYP4A8 preferred 11,12-EET. In general, the closer the oxido ring is to the carboxylic acid functionality, the higher the rate of EET metabolism and the lower the regiospecificity for the EET omega-carbon. Analysis of cis-parinaric acid displacement from the ligand-binding domain of the human peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha showed that omega-hydroxylated 14,15-EET bound to this receptor with high affinity (K(i) = 3 +/- 1 nm). Moreover, at 1 microm, the omega-alcohol of 14,15-EET or a 1:4 mixture of the omega-alcohols of 8,9- and 11,12-EETs activated human and mouse peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha in transient transfection assays, suggesting a role for them as endogenous ligands for these orphan nuclear receptors.

Characterization of the Amino-terminal Activation Domain of Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor α: IMPORTANCE OF α-HELICAL STRUCTURE IN THE TRANSACTIVATING FUNCTION

The transactivating function of the A/B region of mouse peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha; NR1C1) was characterized. The truncated version of PPARalpha lacking the A/B region had 60-70% lower transactivating function than full-length PPARalpha in both the presence and absence of the peroxisome proliferator ciprofibrate. When tethered to the yeast Gal4 DNA-binding domain, the A/B region exhibited the significant ligand-independent transactivating function, AF-1 activity. The first 44 amino acid residues were necessary for maximal transactivation, and the minimally essential region was further delimited to amino acids 15-44. This region is highly enriched with acidic residues, but mutational analyses showed that the protein structure, rather than the negative charge itself, was important for the AF-1 activity. An alpha-helical configuration was predicted for this region, and a CD spectrum analysis of the synthetic peptides showed that mutant sequences with higher AF-1 activity have higher helical contents and vice versa. The most active mutant, in which Met(31) was replaced with Leu, was approximately 5-fold more potent than the wild-type A/B region. These findings indicate that the AF-1 region of PPARalpha is an acidic activation domain and that the helix-forming property is implicated in the transactivating function.

P300 Functions as a Coactivator for the Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor α

The integrator protein, p300, was demonstrated to interact with mouse peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha in a ligand-enhanced manner. The PPARalpha-interacting domain of p300 was mapped to amino acids 39-117 which interacted strongly with PPARalpha but did not interact with retinoic acid receptor-gamma or retinoid X receptor-alpha. Amino acids within the carboxyl terminus of PPARalpha as well as residues within the hinge region were required for ligand-dependent interaction with p300. p300 enhanced the transcriptional activation properties of PPARalpha and, therefore, can be considered a bona fide coactivator for this nuclear receptor. These observations extend the group of p300-interacting proteins to include mPPARalpha and further characterize the molecular mechanisms of PPARalpha-mediated transcriptional regulation.

An epitope-tagging system for studying regulation of the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha (PPAR alpha).

Peroxisome proliferators (PPs) are a group of compounds which cause peroxisome proliferation and hepatocellular carcinomas in rodents, and form a class of non-genotoxic carcinogens. It is thought that PPs act via a receptor similar to members of the nuclear hormone superfamily termed the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR). Multiple subtypes (alpha, beta, delta and gamma) of the receptor exist and are differentially expressed between tissues and species. PPAR alpha has been shown to activate transcription by binding to response elements upstream of peroxisome proliferator responsive genes. However, despite the isolation of transcriptionally active human subtypes of the receptor, hPPAR alpha and hNUC1, humans are thought to be non-responsive to PPs. This is possibly due to regulation of PPAR, and it has been recently reported that PPAR alpha is a phosphoprotein in vivo and insulin regulates its phosphorylation. A system employing epitope-tagged receptors has been developed to study this further, with the aim of establishing stably transfected cell lines expressing high levels of epitope-tagged mouse and human PPAR alpha. Our experiments clearly demonstrate that an epitope-tagged mPPAR alpha receptor has an equal ability to modulate transcription as the native receptor in transactivation assays and will be further used to examine the molecular mechanisms of peroxisome proliferation.

Ligand-induced Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor α Conformational Change

Structurally diverse peroxisome proliferators and related compounds that have been demonstrated to induce the ligand-dependent transcriptional activation function of mouse peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (mPPARalpha) in transfection experiments were tested for the ability to induce conformational changes within mPPARalpha in vitro. WY-14,643, 5,8,11,14-eicosatetraynoic acid, LY-171883, and clofibric acid all directly induced mPPARalpha conformational changes as evidenced by a differential protease sensitivity assay. Carboxyl-terminal truncation mutagenesis of mPPARalpha differentially affected the ability of these ligands to induce conformational changes suggesting that PPAR ligands may make distinct contacts with the receptor. Direct interaction of peroxisome proliferators and related compounds with, and the resulting conformational alteration(s) in, mPPARalpha may facilitate interaction of the receptor with transcriptional intermediary factors and/or the general transcription machinery and, thus, may underlie the molecular basis of ligand-dependent transcriptional activation mediated by mPPARalpha.

The Orphan Nuclear Hormone Receptor LXRα Interacts with the Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor and Inhibits Peroxisome Proliferator Signaling

The yeast two-hybrid system was used to isolate novel cellular factors that interact with the mouse peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha). One of the interacting clones isolated encoded LXRalpha, a recently described human orphan nuclear hormone receptor. LXRalpha bound directly to PPARalpha, as well as to the common heterodimerization partner 9-cis-retinoic acid receptor (RXRalpha). LXRalpha did not form a DNA binding complex with PPARalpha on synthetic hormone response elements composed of direct repeats of the TGACCT consensus half-site or on naturally occurring peroxisome proliferator response elements (PPREs) or LXRalpha response elements. However, LXRalpha inhibited binding of PPARalpha/RXRalpha heterodimers to PPREs, and coexpression of LXRalpha in mammalian cells antagonized peroxisome proliferator signaling mediated by PPARalpha/RXRalpha in vivo. These findings identify a novel partner for PPARalpha and suggest that LXRalpha plays a role in modulating PPAR-signaling pathways in the cell.

The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor interacts with the retinoid X receptor in vivo.

The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) binds cooperatively to cognate peroxisome proliferator-responsive elements (PPRE) in vitro through heterodimerization with retinoid X receptors (RXR). We used the yeast two-hybrid system to determine whether these two nuclear receptors physically interact in vivo. Mouse (m) PPAR and human (h) RXR alpha were synthesized as fusion proteins to either the DNA-binding domain (GBD) or the transactivation domain (GAD) of the yeast GAL4 transcription-activator protein, and were tested for their ability to activate expression of a GAL1::lacZ reporter gene. Strong activation was observed only in yeast transformed with combinations of GBD::mPPAR and GAD::hRXR alpha or with GAD::mPPAR and GBD::hRXR alpha. Homodimeric interaction by mPPAR was not detected. These results provide evidence for the interaction of PPAR and RXR alpha in vivo in the absence of a PPRE target site or exogenously added ligands.

Interaction of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha with the retinoid X receptor alpha unmasks a cryptic peroxisome proliferator response element that overlaps an ARP-1-binding site in the CYP4A6 promoter.

P450 4A6 is highly induced by peroxisome proliferators in vivo. Gene transfer experiments indicate that this induction can be mediated by the mouse peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPAR alpha) and that it is dependent on upstream enhancer elements in the CYP4A6 gene. However, as has been seen for other peroxisome proliferator response elements (PPREs), PPAR alpha does not bind directly to a previously characterized PPRE of the CYP4A6 gene in the absence of additional proteins such as the retinoid X receptor alpha (RXR alpha). When PPAR alpha and RXR alpha are coexpressed, the overall transcription of the CYP4A6 reporter is increased, and a synergistic response to both retinoids and peroxisome proliferators is evident that is dependent on the presence of both receptors. In addition, a cryptic response element is unmasked in constructs lacking the upstream enhancers. DNase I protection assays indicate that when present together, but not singly, PPAR alpha and RXR alpha bind to a site located within 29 base pairs upstream of the CYP4A6 transcription start site. This region contains a sequence similar to that found in the apolipoprotein CIII gene that has been shown to bind RXR alpha and the orphan nuclear receptor, ARP-1. The corresponding sequence in the CYP4A6 gene also binds ARP-1. A similar sequence found in the promoter region of the rat CYP4A1 gene does not, however, bind either PPAR alpha/RXR alpha or ARP-1. Transfection of increasing amounts of the ARP-1 expression vector blocks the PPAR alpha/RXR alpha-mediated induction of transcription from the CYP4A6 promoter. Mutations that prevent the binding of either PPAR alpha/RXR alpha or ARP-1 to a double-stranded oligonucleotide corresponding to the proximal enhancer eliminate the peroxisome proliferator-induced transcriptional response observed for the promoter construct in the presence of PPAR alpha/RXR alpha, but these mutations do not eliminate the response seen when the upstream enhancers are present. These results indicate that the PPREs of the CYP4A6 gene are recognized by multiple members of the nuclear receptor family that are likely to contribute to the regulation of CYP4A6 expression in both an agonistic (RXR alpha) and an antagonistic (ARP-1) manner.