Nitrosodiethylamine metabolism in the viviparous fish Poeciliopsis: evidence for the existence of liver P450pj activity and expression.

Several species of fish from the genus Poeciliopsis differ dramatically in their response to the carcinogen N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA). The differential induction of tumors among genotypes exposed to NDEA may, in part, result from differences in liver cytochrome P450pj activity (the piscine equivalent of mammalian P450j). Evidence for the existence of cytochrome P450pj activity and mRNA expression has been found in several Poeciliopsis genotypes (species and strains). Biochemical evidence suggests that a microsomal cytochrome P450 enzyme catalyzes the metabolism of NDEA to acetaldehyde and other intermediates in Poeciliopsis. This reaction was inhibited by carbon monoxide, and required molecular oxygen and reducing equivalents (NADPH). Differences were found in maximal activity as well as temperature optima among genotypes. Poeciliopsis, a livebearing fish from desert streams of northwestern Mexico, appears to have thermal optima for cytochrome P450pj activity between 25 and 30 degrees C depending on the genotype. Western blot analysis (using anti-rat P450IIE1 antibodies) detected a 55-60 kd band in microsomes isolated from rat and Poeciliopsis. Using a 49mer probe specific for rat cytochrome P450j, Northern blots revealed a 3.3 kb mRNA from livers of a Poeciliopsis genotype and rat, but none in muscle mRNA from either organism. S1 nuclease protection assays, using the same probe, revealed that a mRNA fragment protected by the probe against digestion was induced on exposure of the whole organism to ethanol (via uptake from the aquatic environment). The assays also demonstrated that ethanol treatments both induced and suppressed this mRNA, depending on concentration and exposure time.