An epoxysuccinic acid derivative(loxistatin)-induced hepatic injury in rats and hamsters.

Loxistatin is a possible therapeutic agent of muscular dystrophy. A single oral administration of loxistatin to male rats caused focal necrosis of the liver with inflammatory cell infiltration. The severity of the lesions was dose-dependent up to 200 mg/kg and also manifest by an increase in serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase activities. Hepatic glutathione (GSH) levels decreased with a maximum 20% depletion within 5 hr after the oral administration of loxistatin. Pretreatment with diethyl maleate did not potentiate the loxistatin-induced hepatic injury. On the other hand, the hepatoprotective effect of cysteamine was observed when cysteamine was administered 24 hr before loxistatin dosing, but the effect was not observed when the antidote was administered concomitantly with loxistatin. Pretreatment of rats with phenobarbital or trans-stilbene oxide provided partial protection against the hepatotoxic effect of loxistatin. Pretreatment with SKF-525A resulted in increased hepatic injury, while pretreatment with piperonyl butoxide, cimetidine, or 3-methylcholanthrene had no effect on hepatic damage by loxistatin. Five hours after [14C]loxistatin administration to rats, the covalent binding of the radioactivity to proteins was greatest in the liver, followed by the kidney, then muscle and blood to a lesser extent. [14C]Loxistatin acid, the pharmacologically active form of loxistatin, irreversibly bound to rat liver microsomal proteins; more binding occurred when the NADPH-generating system was omitted and when the microsomes were boiled first. GSH did not alter the extent of irreversible binding, whereas N-ethylmaleimide decreased the binding of [14C]loxistatin acid to rat liver microsomal proteins by 75%. Unlike the rat, administration of loxistatin to hamsters caused neither hepatic injury nor hepatic GSH depletion even at a high dose (500 mg/kg). Both the distribution and covalent binding of radioactivity in the hamster liver were one-third of those in rats following [14C]loxistatin dosing. These results suggest that loxistatin causes species-specific hepatotoxicity and that, at least in part, some of the toxic effects of loxistatin are mediated by the nonenzymatic covalent binding of loxistatin acid to thiol residues on cellular macromolecules.