A lipidomic cell-based assay for studying drug-induced phospholipidosis and steatosis

Autores de IIS La Fe

• Juan Carlos García Cañaveras

  Autor

• Manuel David Peris Diaz

  Autor

• María Isabel Alcoriza Balaguer

  Autor

• Manuela Cerdan Calero

  Autor

• María Teresa Donato Martín

  Autor

• 

  Agustín Lahoz Rodríguez

  Autor

Grupos

• Hepatología experimental y Trasplante hepático

  Investigador Principal

  Laia Tolosa Pardo

• Unidad de Biomarcadores y Medicina de Precisión (UBYMP)

  

  Leader

  Agustín Lahoz Rodríguez

Abstract

Phospholipidosis and steatosis are two toxic effects, which course with overaccumulation of different classes of lipids in the liver. MS-based lipidomics has become a powerful tool for the comprehensive determination of lipids. LC-MS lipid profiling of HepG2 cells is proposed as an in vitro assay to study and anticipate phospholipidosis and steatosis. Cells with and without preincubation with a mixture of free fatty acids (FFA; i.e. oleic and palmitic) were exposed to a set of well-known steatogenic and phospholipidogenic compounds. The use of FFA preloading accelerated the accumulation of phospholipids, thus leading to a better discrimination of phospholipidosis, and magnified the lipidomic alterations induced by steatogenic drugs. Phospholipidosis was characterized by increased levels of phosphatidylcholines, phosphatidylethanolamines, phosphatidylserines, and phosphatidylinositols, while steatosis induced alterations in FA oxidation and triacylglyceride (TG) synthesis pathways (with changes in the levels of FFA, acylcarnitines, monoacylglycerides, diacylglycerides, and TG). Interestingly, palmitic and oleic acids incorporation into lipids differed. A characteristic pattern was observed in the fold of change of particular TG species in the case of steatosis (TG(54:3) > TG(52:2) > TG(50:1) > TG(48:0)). Based on the levels of those lipids containing only palmitic and/or oleic acid moieties a partial least squares-discriminant analysis model was built, which showed good discrimination among nontoxic, phospholipidogenic and steatogenic compounds. In conclusion, it has been shown that the use of FFA preincubation together with intracellular LC-MS based lipid profiling could be a useful approach to identify the potential of drug candidates to induce phospholipidosis and/or steatosis.

Keywords

• Drug-induced liver injury; Hepatotoxicity; HepG2; LC-MS; Lipidomics