Disruption of sphingolipid and glycosphingolipid profiles in human bronchial epithelial cells and extracellular vesicles during gradual benzo[a]pyrene-induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.

In this study, effects of environmental carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) on deregulation of sphingolipid (SL) and glycosphingolipid (GSL) metabolism were studied during BaP-induced transformation of normal human bronchial epithelial HBEC-12KT cells. After 2-weeks of exposure, BaP altered their morphology, while it downregulated sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) and upregulated sphingosine, gangliosides, GM3 and Lc3 GSLs. A longer, 8-week exposure to BaP, further increased cell migratory capacity, induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers and EMT-related transcriptional regulators (SNAI1, ZEB1 and ZEB2), and it increased intracellular sphingosine, ceramide-1-phosphate, as well as a series of GSLs (glucosylceramide, lactosylceramide, GM1a, GD3, Lc3 and Gb3).

Transcriptional and phenotypical alterations associated with a gradual benzo[a]pyrene-induced transition of human bronchial epithelial cells into mesenchymal-like cells.

The role of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), a prominent genotoxic carcinogen and aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) ligand, in tumor progression remains poorly characterized. We investigated the impact of BaP on the process of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in normal human bronchial epithelial HBEC-12KT cells. Early morphological changes after 2-week exposure were accompanied with induction of SERPINB2, IL1, CDKN1A/p21 (linked with cell cycle delay) and chemokine CXCL5.

A prolonged exposure of human lung carcinoma epithelial cells to benzo[a]pyrene induces p21-dependent epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-like phenotype.

Deciphering the role of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) in lung cancer cells may help us to better understand the role of toxic AhR ligands in lung carcinogenesis, including cancer progression. We employed human lung carcinoma A549 cells to investigate their fate after continuous two-week exposure to model AhR agonists, genotoxic benzo[a]pyrene (BaP; 1 μM) and non-genotoxic 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD; 10 nM). While TCDD increased proliferative rate of A549 cells, exposure to BaP decreased cell proliferation and induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-like phenotype, which was associated with enhanced cell migration, invasion, and altered cell morphology.

Environmental six-ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are potent inducers of the AhR-dependent signaling in human cells.

The toxicities of many environmental polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), in particular those of high-molecular-weight PAHs (with MW higher than 300), remain poorly characterized. The objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of selected environmentally relevant PAHs with MW 302 (MW302 PAHs) to activate the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), since this represents a major toxic mode of action of PAHs. A large number of the evaluated compounds exhibited strong AhR-mediated activities, in particular in human models.

Adaptive changes in global gene expression profile of lung carcinoma A549 cells acutely exposed to distinct types of AhR ligands.

Exposure to persistent ligands of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) has been found to cause lung cancer in experimental animals, and lung adenocarcinomas are often associated with enhanced AhR expression and aberrant AhR activation. In order to better understand the action of toxic AhR ligands in lung epithelial cells, we performed global gene expression profiling and analyze TCDD-induced changes in A549 transcriptome, both sensitive and non-sensitive to CH223191 co-treatment. Comparison of our data with results from previously reported microarray and ChIP-seq experiments enabled us to identify candidate genes, which expression status reflects exposure of lung cancer cells to TCDD, and to predict processes, pathways (e.

In vitro profiling of toxic effects of prominent environmental lower-chlorinated PCB congeners linked with endocrine disruption and tumor promotion.

The mechanisms contributing to toxic effects of airborne lower-chlorinated PCB congeners (LC-PCBs) remain poorly characterized. We evaluated in vitro toxicities of environmental LC-PCBs found in both indoor and outdoor air (PCB 4, 8, 11, 18, 28 and 31), and selected hydroxylated metabolites of PCB 8, 11 and 18, using reporter gene assays, as well as other functional cellular bioassays. We focused on processes linked with endocrine disruption, tumor promotion and/or regulation of transcription factors controlling metabolism of both endogenous compounds and xenobiotics.

Toxic Effects of the Major Components of Diesel Exhaust in Human Alveolar Basal Epithelial Cells (A549).

We investigated the toxicity of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P), 1-nitropyrene (1-NP) and 3-nitrobenzanthrone (3-NBA) in A549 cells. Cells were treated for 4 h and 24 h with: B[a]P (0.1 and 1 μM), 1-NP (1 and 10 μM) and 3-NBA (0.

Pure non-dioxin-like PCB congeners suppress induction of AhR-dependent endpoints in rat liver cells.

The relative potencies of non-ortho-substituted coplanar polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners to activate the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) and to cause the AhR-dependent toxic events are essential for their risk assessment. Since some studies suggested that abundant non-dioxin-like PCB congeners (NDL-PCBs) may alter the AhR activation by PCB mixtures and possibly cause non-additive effects, we evaluated potential suppressive effects of NDL-PCBs on AhR activation, using a series of 24 highly purified NDL-PCBs. We investigated their impact on the model AhR agonist-induced luciferase reporter gene expression in rat hepatoma cells and on induction of CYP1A1/1B1 mRNAs and deregulation of AhR-dependent cell proliferation in rat liver epithelial cells.