Experimental nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in mice leads to cytochrome p450 2a5 upregulation through nuclear factor erythroid 2-like 2 translocation

• CYP2A5 up-regulation in response to NAFLD was Nrf2 dependent.
• NAFLD induces oxidant stress.
• A protective role for Nrf2 against hepatic damage by NAFLD was demonstrated.
• NAFLD induces translocation of Nrf2 from the cytoplasm to the nucleus.
• Nrf2 binding to CYP2a5 was shown.

Mouse cytochrome P450 2A5 (CYP2A5) is upregulated in various liver diseases and a putative common feature for all of these conditions is altered cellular redox status. Nuclear factor erythroid 2-like 2 (Nrf2) is a transcription factor that is post-translationally regulated by oxidative stress and controls the transcription of protective target genes. In the present study, we have characterized the regulation of CYP2A5 by Nrf2 and evaluated gene expression, protein content and activity of anti-oxidant enzymes in the Nrf2+/+ and Nrf2−/− mice model of non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFLD). After eight weeks of feeding on a high-fat diet, livers from Nrf2−/− mice showed a substantial increase in macro and microvesicular steatosis and a massive increase in the number of neutrophil polymorphs, compared to livers from wild-type mice treated similarly. Livers of Nrf2−/− mice on the high-fat diet exhibited more oxidative stress than their wild-type counterparts as assessed by a significant depletion of reduced glutathione that was coupled with increases in malondialdehyde. Furthermore, results in Nrf2-deficient mice showed that CYP2A5 expression was significantly attenuated in the absence of Nrf2, as was found with the conventional target genes of Nrf2. The treatment of wild-type mice with high-fat diet leaded to nuclear accumulation of Nrf2, and co-immunoprecipitation experiments showed that Nrf2 was bound to Cyp2a5. These findings suggest that the high-fat diet induced alteration in cellular redox status and induction of CYP2A5 was modulated through the redox-sensitive transcription Nrf2.

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