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N-nitroso compounds (NOC) are genotoxic, carcinogenic to animals, and may play a role in human cancer development. Because the gastro-intestinal tract is an important route of exposure through endogenous nitrosation, we hypothesize that NOC exposure targets genetic processes relevant in colon carcinogenesis. To investigate these genomic responses, we analyzed the transcriptomic effects of genotoxic concentrations of two nitrosamides, N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG, 1μM) and N-methyl-N-nitrosurea (MNU, 1mM), and four nitrosamines, N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA, 50mM), N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA, 100mM), N-nitrosopiperidine (NPIP, 40mM), and N-nitrosopyrrolidine (NPYR, 100mM), in the human colon carcinoma cell line Caco-2. Gene Ontology gene group, consensus motif gene group and biological pathway analysis revealed that nitrosamides had little effect on gene expression after 24 h of exposure, whereas nitrosamines had a strong impact on the transcriptomic profile. Analyses showed modifications of cell cycle regulation and apoptosis pathways for nitrosamines which was supported by flow cytometric analysis. We found additional modifications in gene groups and pathways of oxidative stress and inflammation, which suggest an increase in oxidative stress and proinflammatory immune response upon nitrosamine exposure, although less distinct for NDMA. Furthermore, NDEA, NPIP, and NPYR most strongly affected several developmental motif gene groups and pathways, which may influence developmental processes. Many of these pathways and gene groups are implicated in the carcinogenic process and their modulation by nitrosamine exposure may therefore influence the development of colon cancer. In summary, our study has identified pathway modifications in human colon cells which may be associated with cancer risk of nitrosamine exposure in the human colon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frequent use of rodent hepatic in vitro systems in pharmacological and toxicological investigations challenges extrapolation of in vitro results to the situation in vivo and interspecies extrapolation from rodents to humans. The toxicogenomics approach may aid in evaluating relevance of these model systems for human risk assessment by direct comparison of toxicant-induced gene expression profiles and infers mechanisms between several systems. In the present study, acetaminophen (APAP) was used as a model compound to compare gene expression responses between rat and human using in vitro cellular models, hepatocytes, and between rat in vitro and in vivo. Comparison at the level of modulated biochemical pathways and biological processes rather than at that of individual genes appears preferable as it increases the overlap between various systems. Pathway analysis by T-profiler revealed similar biochemical pathways and biological processes repressed in rat and human hepatocytes in vitro, as well as in rat liver in vitro and in vivo. Repressed pathways comprised energy-consuming biochemical pathways, mitochondrial function, and oxidoreductase activity. The present study is the first that used a toxicogenomics-based parallelogram approach, extrapolating in vitro to in vivo and interspecies, to reveal relevant mechanisms indicative of APAP-induced liver toxicity in humans in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]