Metabolism of acrylamide to glycidamide and their cytotoxicity in isolated rat hepatocytes: protective effects of GSH precursors.

Acrylamide (AA) is a widely studied industrial chemical that is neurotoxic, mutagenic to somatic and germ cells, and carcinogenic in rodents. The recent discovery of AA at ppm levels in a wide variety of commonly consumed foods has energized research efforts worldwide to define toxicity and prevention. Metabolism and cytotoxicity of AA and its epoxide glycidamide (GA) were studied in the hepatocytes freshly isolated from male Sprague-Dawley rats. The isolated hepatocytes metabolized AA to GA. The formation of GA followed Michaelis-Menten kinetic parameters yielded apparent Km = 0.477 +/- 0.100 and 0.263 +/- 0.016 mM, Vmax = 6.5 +/- 2.1 and 26.4 +/- 3.0 nmol/h/10(6) cells, and CLint = 14 +/- 5 and 100 +/- 12 microl/h/10(6) cells for the hepatocytes from untreated and acetone-treated rats, respectively. There were lower Km and marked increases in Vmax (four-fold) and in CLint (sevenfold) in acetone-treated rat hepatocytes. The data suggest that CYP2E1 played a major role in metabolizing AA to more toxic GA. Both AA and GA induced a concentration- and time-dependent glutathione (GSH) depletion of the hepatocytes. From decreasing rates of GSH contents in hepatocytes, the parameters of glutathione S-transferase (GST) in hepatocytes to AA and GA were calculated to be Km = 1.4 and 1.5 mM, Vmax = 21 and 33 nmol/h/10(6) cells, and CLint = 15 and 23 microl/h/10(6) cells, respectively. GA 1.5-times more readily depleted GSH content than AA. GA decreased the viability of hepatocytes at 3 mM, but AA did not. These data indicate that GA is more toxic than AA as assessed by intracellular GSH depletion and loss of viability of hepatocytes. GSH precursors such as N-acetylcysteine and methionine provided significant anti-cytotoxic effects on the decrease of GSH content and cell viability of hepatocytes induced by GA and AA.