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NMR-based metabonomic evaluation of livers from rats chronically treated with tamoxifen, mestranol, and phenobarbital

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In this study, we look at the metabolic effects of long-term dosing with tamoxifen, mestranol or phenobarbital on the liver. Tamoxifen, mestranol and phenobarbital have all been reported to act as promoters of hepatic tumors. While tamoxifen and mestranol are known to have estrogenic activity, in the liver phenobarbital is a non-estrogenic compound. Aqueous and lipophilic liver extracts from control and chronically treated Fisher 344 rats were evaluated by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). In both the aqueous and lipophilic sample sets, the estrogenic action of mestranol appears to be responsible for the clustering of these samples with those animals treated with tamoxifen. Phenobarbital does not have estrogenic activity and, therefore, clusters away from the estrogenic and control groups. In the lipophilic samples, the fatty acid peak (CH2) n was higher in tamoxifen-treated rats than in control, phenobarbital- or mestranol-treated rats. In the aqueous samples, serine and choline levels were higher in phenobarbital-treated rats than controls, which may be an indication that the folate–homocysteine metabolic pathways were altered.

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  1. National Center for Toxicological Research, Division of Systems Toxicology, Jefferson, AR, 72079-9502, USA

    Laura Schnackenberg, Richard D. Beger & Yvonne Dragan

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  1. Laura Schnackenberg
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  2. Richard D. Beger
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  3. Yvonne Dragan
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Correspondence to Richard D. Beger.

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Schnackenberg, L., Beger, R.D. & Dragan, Y. NMR-based metabonomic evaluation of livers from rats chronically treated with tamoxifen, mestranol, and phenobarbital. Metabolomics 1, 87–94 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-005-1110-8

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