Dietary Erythrodiol Modifies Hepatic Transcriptome in Mice in a Sex and Dose-Dependent Way

Erythrodiol is a terpenic compound found in a large number of plants. To test the hypotheses that its long-term administration may influence hepatic transcriptome and this could be influenced by the presence of APOA1-containing high-density lipoproteins (HDL), Western diets containing 0.01% of erythrodiol (10 mg/kg dose) were provided to Apoe- and Apoa1-deficient mice. Hepatic RNA-sequencing was carried out in male Apoe-deficient mice fed purified Western diets differing in the erythrodiol content. The administration of this compound significantly up- regulated 68 and down-regulated 124 genes at the level of 2-fold change. These genes belonged to detoxification processes, protein metabolism and nucleic acid related metabolites. Gene expression changes of 21 selected transcripts were verified by RT-qPCR. Ccl19-ps2, Cyp2b10, Rbm14-rbm4, Sec61g, Tmem81, Prtn3, Amy2a5, Cyp2b9 and Mup1 showed significant changes by erythrodiol administration. When Cyp2b10, Dmbt1, Cyp2b13, Prtn3 and Cyp2b9 were analyzed in female Apoe-deficient mice, no change was observed. Likewise, no significant variation was observed in Apoa1- or in Apoe-deficient mice receiving doses ranging from 0.5 to 5 mg/kg erythrodiol. Our results give evidence that erythrodiol exerts a hepatic transcriptional role, but this is selective in terms of sex and requires a threshold dose. Furthermore, it requires an APOA1-containing HDL.