Peroxisome proliferation and associated effects caused by perfluorooctanoic acid in vitamin A-deficient mice

Vitamin A-deficient male mice were treated for 10 days with 0.02% perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in their diet. The effects of this highly potent peroxisome proliferator on peroxisomal palmitoyl-CoA oxidation and lauroyl-CoA oxidase activities were reduced by 3.1–7.5 times in comparision to the values obtained with mice receiving a vitamin A-adequate diet. The activity of peroxisomal catalase was virtually unaffected by vitamin A deficiency and treatment with PFOA had no significant effect on this activity in vitamin A-adequate or vitamin A-deficient mice. However, vitamin A deficiency itself caused a more than 800% increase in cytosolic catalase activity. Thus, the precentage increase caused by PFOA on cytosolic catalase activity was reduced 12.6 times in vitamin A-deficent mice compared to the increase in vitamin A-adequate mice, although the total absolute activities were similar. These findings suggest that the peroxisome proliferation caused by this peroxisome proliferator is highly depedent on the vitamin A status of the mouse.