Endotoxin stimulates the expression of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in Kupffer and hepatic endothelial cells.

The aim of the study was to elucidate the effect of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) administration in vivo (Escherichia coli endotoxin, 1 mg/kg body weight) on the expression and cellular activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH, EC 1.1.1.49), the rate-limiting enzyme of the hexose monophosphate shunt in hepatic cells. Under basal conditions, Kupffer cells displayed higher activity of G6PDH than endothelial or parenchymal cells. In vivo LPS treatments for 7 and 22 h resulted in 40 and 60% increases, respectively, in the cellular activity of G6PDH in Kupffer cells. G6PDH activity was increased by 140 and 90% after 7- and 22-h LPS treatments in endothelial cells. G6PDH activity in parenchymal cells prepared from animals after 22 h of LPS treatment was decreased by approximately 60% compared with that in cells from saline-injected animals. Total cellular RNA or protein extracts from these cells were analyzed by Northern or Western blots. Under basal conditions, G6PDH mRNA levels relative to total cellular RNA were higher in Kupffer than in endothelial cells and were not detectable in parenchyma cells. LPS injection caused a time-dependent increase in G6PDH mRNA expression in Kupffer and endothelial cells. Western blot analysis of Kupffer cell extracts also showed that LPS treatments caused markedly elevated expression of protein in these cells. These results show that endotoxemia results in marked induction of G6PDH in Kupffer and hepatic endothelial cells but has no such effect in the parenchymal cells. These findings also suggest that the elevated cellular expression of G6PDH is an important regulatory event in the adaptive responses of hepatic nonparenchymal cells to infections. The elevated expression of G6PDH may be important for support of the upregulated NADPH-dependent pathways, such as superoxide anion and nitric oxide production, macromolecular synthesis, or the maintenance of cellular glutathione status.