Taurine acts as a modulator for the induction of CYP3A4 mRNA by rifampicin in HepG2 cell line

• Published in: Japanese Journal of Pharmacology 2000, Vol.82 (suppl.1), p.150-150
• Main Authors: Kinoshita, Kayoko, Sumida, Akihiko, Morisaki, Tomoko, Takahashi, Kyoko, Fukuen, Shuichi, Matsuda, Hideyasu, Yamamoto, Isamu, Takahashi, Koichi, Azuma, Junichi
• Format: Article
• Language: eng ; jpn
• ISSN: 0021-5198
• DOI: 10.1016/S0021-5198(19)48061-X

Taurine is widely consumed in many kind of foods, health drink and therapeutic drug for congestive heart failure and chronic hepatitis. However, little is known about the influence of taurine to drug-metabolizing enzyme, chtochromc P450 (CYP), up to date. To address this question, we examined whether taurine could affect the expression of CYP3A4 mRNA in human hepatoblastoma HepG2 cell line using RT-competitive PCR. Rifampicin (RFP：50 μM), which was known as inducer to various CYPs, caused a 4.4-fold increase in CYP3A4 mRNA level of HepG2 cells after a 72 h incubation. Exposure of the cells to taurine (20mM) in the absence of RFP had no effect on the inducibiity of CYP3A4 mRNA. However, cells pretreated for 24 h with 20mM taurine exhibited induced responsiveness to RFP, resulting in a 8.4-fold inducibility of CYP3A4 mRNA, in comparison with RFP alone (4.4-fold). Under this condition, taisrine did not alter intracellular uptake of RFP. Our results suggest that taurine may act as a modulator for induction of CYP3A4 by RFP.