Editor's highlight: Mode of action analysis for rat hepatocellular tumors produced by the synthetic pyrethroid momfluorothrin: Evidence for activation of the constitutive androstane receptor and mitogenicity in rat hepatocytes

High dietary levels of momfluorothrin, a nongenotoxic synthetic pyrethroid, induced hepatocellular tumors in male and female Wistar rats in a 2-year bioassay. The mode of action (MOA) for rat hepatocellular tumors was postulated to occur via activation of the constitutive androstane receptor (CAR), as momfluorothrin is a close structural analogue of the pyrethroid metofluthrin, which is known to produce rat liver tumors through a CAR-mediated MOA. To elucidate the MOA for rat hepatocellular tumor formation by momfluorothrin, this study was conducted to examine effects on key and associative events of the CAR-mediated MOA for phenobarbital based on the International Programme on Chemical Safety framework. A 2-week in vivo study in Wistar rats revealed that momfluorothrin induced CYP2B activities, increased liver weights, produced hepatocyte hypertrophy and increased hepatocyte replicative DNA synthesis. These effects correlated with the dose-response relationship for liver tumor formation and also showed reversibility upon cessation of treatment. Moreover, momfluorothrin did not increase CYP2B1/2 mRNA expression and hepatocyte replicative DNA synthesis in CAR knockout rats. Using cultured Wistar rat hepatocytes and the RNA interference technique, knockdown of CAR resulted in a suppression of induction of CYP2B1/2 mRNA levels by momfluorothrin. Alternative MOAs for liver tumor formation were excluded. A global gene expression profile analysis of the liver of male Wistar rats treated with momfluorothrin for 2 weeks also showed similarity to the prototypic CAR activator phenobarbital. Overall, these data strongly support that the postulated MOA for momfluorothrin-induced rat hepatocellular tumors as being mediated by CAR activation.