Summary
Certain waterblooms of toxic cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) are a health threat because of their production of toxic peptides, termed microcystins, which cause liver damage in wild and domesticated animals. The most widely studied microcystin is microcystin-LR, a heptapeptide containing the twol-amino acids, leucine and arginine. The inhibition of protein phosphatase type 1 and type 2A activities by microcystin-LR is similar to that of the known protein phosphatase inhibitor and tumor promoter okadaic acid. We show in this report that microcystin-LR, applied below the acute toxicity level, dose-dependently increases the number and percentage area of positive foci for the placental form of glutathioneS-transferase in rat liver, which was initiated with diethylnitrosamine. The result was obtained independently through two animal experiments. This observation indicates that microcystin-LR is a new liver tumor promoter mediated through inhibition of protein phosphatase type 1 and type 2A activities. This provides further evidence that the okadaic acid pathway is a general mechanism of tumor promotion in various organs, such as mouse skin, rat glandular stomach and rat liver.
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Abbreviations
- DEN:
-
diethylnitrosamine
- DMBA:
-
7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene
- GST-P:
-
glutathioneS-transferase placental form
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Nishiwaki-Matsushima, R., Ohta, T., Nishiwaki, S. et al. Liver tumor promotion by the cyanobacterial cyclic peptide toxin microcystin-LR. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 118, 420–424 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01629424
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01629424