Protective role of biliverdin against bile acid-induced oxidative stress in liver cells.

The accumulation of bile acids affects mitochondria causing oxidative stress. Antioxidant defense is accepted to include biotransformation of biliverdin (BV) into bilirubin (BR) through BV reductase α (BVRα). The mutation (c.214C>A) in BLVRA results in a non-functional enzyme (mutBVRα). Consequently, homozygous carriers suffering from cholestasis develop green jaundice. Whether BVRα deficiency reduces BV-dependent protection against bile acids is a relevant question because a screening of the mut-BLVRA allele (a) in 311 individuals in Greenland revealed that this SNP was relatively frequent in the Inuit population studied (1% a/a and 4.5% A/a). In three human liver cell lines an inverse correlation between BVRα expression (HepG2>Alexander>HuH-7) and basal reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels was found, however the ability of BV to reduce oxidative stress and cell death induced by deoxycholic acid (DCA) or potassium dichromate (PDC) was similar in these cells. The transduction of BVRα or mutBVRα in human placenta JAr cells with negligible BVRα expression or the silencing of endogenous BVRα expression in liver cells had no effect on DCA-induced oxidative stress and cell death or BV-mediated cytoprotection. DCA stimulated both superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide production, whereas BV only inhibited the latter. DCA and other dihydroxy-bile acids, but not PDC, induced up-regulation of both BVRα and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in liver cells through a FXR independent and BV insensitive mechanism. In conclusion, BV exerts direct and BVRα-independent antioxidant and cytoprotective effects, whereas bile acid accumulation in cholestasis stimulates the expression of enzymes favoring the heme biotransformation into BV and BR.

A homozygous nonsense mutation (c.214C->A) in the biliverdin reductase alpha gene (BLVRA) results in accumulation of biliverdin during episodes of cholestasis.

BACKGROUND: Green jaundice is a rare finding usually associated with end-stage liver disease. OBJECTIVE The authors investigated two unrelated Inuit women from different geographical areas in Greenland who had episodes of green jaundice associated with biliary obstruction. METHODS AND RESULTS: The crises were accompanied by increased biochemical markers of cholestasis, together with absent or moderate hyperbilirubinaemia. In contrast, high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry showed hypercholanaemia and high concentrations of biliverdin IXα in serum, urine, bile and milk. Hyperbiliverdinaemia disappeared after surgical correction of the cholestasis. Analysis of the coding sequence of the biliverdin reductase alpha (BVRα) gene (BLVRA) detected three single-nucleotide polymorphisms: c.90G→A, c.214C→A and c.743A→C, which result in p.Ala3Thr, p.Ser44X and p.Gly220Gly, respectively. With the use of TaqMan probes, homozygosity for c.214C→A was found in both patients. Both parents of one of these patients were heterozygous for the inactivating mutation. Her brother was homozygous for normal alleles. Although her sister was also homozygous for the c.214C→A mutation, she had never had hyperbiliverdinaemia or cholestasis. With the use of human liver RNA, the BVRα coding sequence was cloned, and the variant containing c.214C→A was generated by site-directed mutagenesis. Both proteins were expressed in human hepatoma liver cells and Xenopus laevis oocytes. Immunoblotting, immunofluorescence and functional assays of BVRα activity revealed that the mutated sequence generates a truncated protein with no catalytic activity. CONCLUSION: This is the first report of a homozygous BLVRA inactivating mutation indicating that the complete absence of BVRα activity is a non-lethal condition, the most evident phenotypic characteristic of which is the appearance of green jaundice accompanying cholestasis episodes.