Acetaminophen (APAP) hepatotoxicity is currently the most common cause of acute liver failure in the United States. Our long-term goal is to elucidate the function of liver innate immune system in the development of murine APAP hepatotoxicity. The specific hypothesis is that in addition to upstream factors involved in and responding to APAP metabolism, the downstream factors that lead to modulation of liver innate immunity may affect the individual's risks for developing severe APAP hepatotoxicity. Natural killer (NK) and NKT (NK cells with T cell receptors) cells, which are key components of the innate immune system, are highly enriched in the liver in both mouse and human. We have found that NK/NKT cells play a pivotal role in determining the progression and severity of APAP hepatotoxicity based on the observations that 1) depletion of these cells in vivo significantly protected mice from APAP-induced liver injury and improved mouse survival, 2) the protection was correlated with inhibition of inflammatory cytokine/chemokine production and hepatic neutrophil infiltration, 3) as the downstream event of NK/NKT activation, recruited hepatic neutrophils also contribute to liver injury. Based on these observations, the overall goal of this proposal is to further elucidate the activation modes of NK/NKT cells and its interplay with Kupffer cells, and the molecular and cellular mechanisms of cytotoxicity against mouse hepatocytes as they pertain to APAP hepatotoxicity in mice.
The specific aims are to: 1) Determine up-stream activator(s) of NK/NKT cell activation. The role of cytokines and/or receptor recognition will be examined. 2) Further define the importance of NK/NKT cells in the interplay of liver innate immune system in response to APAP toxicity. The critical role of NK/NKT cell-derived IFN? will be validated by adoptive transfer of hepatic NK/NKT cells from wild type mice into IFN?-deficient mice. 3) Determine if NK/NKT cells are cytotoxic to hepatocytes and the molecular mechanism. Whether APAP sensitizes hepatocytes to cytotoxicity of innate immune cells will be investigated. It is hoped that mechanistic insights from these studies will be relevant to understanding the basis for susceptibility to idiosyncratic drug-induced liver disease. Public Health Relevance: Acetaminophen (APAP) is an over the counter medication used by many people. The liver toxicity due to APAP is currently the most common cause of acute liver failure in the United States. It is thus of great interest and importance to understand the mechanism of action leading to liver toxicity so that better therapeutics can be developed to prevent or ameliorate drug-induced liver injury.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DK078586-02
Application #
7634492
Study Section
Hepatobiliary Pathophysiology Study Section (HBPP)
Program Officer
Serrano, Jose
Project Start
2008-07-01
Project End
2013-06-30
Budget Start
2009-07-01
Budget End
2010-06-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$346,375
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Southern California
Department
Internal Medicine/Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
072933393
City
Los Angeles
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
90089
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Dara, Lily; Liu, Zhang-Xu; Kaplowitz, Neil (2016) A murder mystery in the liver: who done it and how? J Clin Invest 126:4068-4071
Han, Derick; Dara, Lily; Win, Sanda et al. (2013) Regulation of drug-induced liver injury by signal transduction pathways: critical role of mitochondria. Trends Pharmacol Sci 34:243-53
Inokuchi, Sayaka; Tsukamoto, Hidekazu; Park, EekJoong et al. (2011) Toll-like receptor 4 mediates alcohol-induced steatohepatitis through bone marrow-derived and endogenous liver cells in mice. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 35:1509-18