Gene Expression Profiling of the PPAR-alpha Agonist Ciprofibrate in the Cynomolgus Monkey Liver

Fibrates, such as ciprofibrate, fenofibrate, and clofibrate, are peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPARα) agonists that have been in clinical use for many decades for treatment of dyslipidemia. When mice and rats are given PPARα agonists, these drugs cause hepatic peroxisome proliferation, hypertrophy, hyperplasia, and eventually hepatocarcinogenesis. Importantly, primates are relatively refractory to these effects; however, the mechanisms for the species differences are not clearly understood. Cynomolgus monkeys were exposed to ciprofibrate at various dose levels for either 4 or 15 days, and the liver transcriptional profiles were examined using Affymetrix human GeneChips. Strong upregulation of many genes relating to fatty acid metabolism and mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation was observed; this reflects the known pharmacology and activity of the fibrates. In addition, (1) many genes related to ribosome and proteasome biosynthesis were upregulated, (2) a large number of genes downregulated were in the complement and coagulation cascades, (3) a number of key regulatory genes, including members of the JUN, MYC, and NFκB families were downregulated, which appears to be in contrast to the rodent, where JUN and MYC are reported to upregulated after PPARα agonist treatment, (4) no transcriptional signal for DNA damage or oxidative stress was observed, and (5) transcriptional signals consistent with an anti-proliferative and a pro-apoptotic effect were seen. We also compared the primate data to literature reports of hepatic transcriptional profiling in PPARα-treated rodents, which showed that the magnitude of induction in β-oxidation pathways was substantially greater in the rodent than the primate.