Originally published as JHC exPRESS on November 28, 2005. doi:10.1369/jhc.5A6808.2005
Volume 54 (3): 329-335, 2006 Copyright ©The Histochemical Society, Inc. Cell-specific Subcellular Localization of Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase in Human Tissues
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (AEE,DFG), Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science (RAF), and Biotechnology/Bioservices Center (MB), University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut Correspondence to: David F. Grant, 69 North Eagleville Road, Storrs, CT. E-mail: David.grant{at}uconn.edu
Soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) is a phase-I xenobiotic metabolizing enzyme having both an N-terminal phosphatase activity and a C-terminal epoxide hydrolase activity. Endogenous hydrolase substrates include arachidonic acid epoxides, which have been involved in regulating blood pressure and inflammation. The subcellular localization of sEH has been controversial. Earlier studies using mouse and rat liver suggested that sEH may be cytosolic and/or peroxisomal. In this study we applied immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy using markers for different subcellular compartments to evaluate sEH colocalization in an array of human tissues. Results showed that sEH is both cytosolic and peroxisomal in human hepatocytes and renal proximal tubules and exclusively cytosolic in other sEH-containing tissues such as pancreatic islet cells, intestinal epithelium, anterior pituitary cells, adrenal gland, endometrium, lymphoid follicles, prostate ductal epithelium, alveolar wall, and blood vessels. sEH was not exclusively peroxisomal in any of the tissues evaluated. Our data suggest that human sEH subcellular localization is tissue dependent, and that sEH may have tissue- or cell-type-specific functionality. To our knowledge, this is the first report showing the subcellular localization of sEH in a wide array of human tissues. (J Histochem Cytochem 54:329335, 2006)
Key Words: subcellular localization soluble epoxide hydrolase confocal microscopy peroxisomal targeting
EPOXIDE HYDROLASES catalyze the hydrolysis of a variety of endogenous and exogenous epoxides to their corresponding diols (Wixtrom and Hammock 1985
sEH possesses an N-terminal phosphatase activity and a C-terminal epoxide hydrolase activity (Cronin et al. 2003
Initially, sEH was mitochondrial based on enzyme activity in different subcellular fractions from mouse liver (Gill and Hammock 1981a
Recently, sEH has been found to have a broad distribution in human tissues (Enayetallah et al. 2004
Human Tissues, Antibodies, and Fluorescent Probes Human tissue samples were obtained from the Cooperative Human Tissue Network, International Bioresearch Solutions (Tucson, AZ), and human tissue microarrays were obtained from Zymed Laboratories (South San Francisco, CA). For all experiments, 4-µm sections of paraffin-embedded tissues were used. The tissue microarrays provided a high throughput method for evaluation of a large number of tissues and ensured identical experimental conditions and reagent concentrations for all tissues on the same slide.
Polyclonal anti-human sEH rabbit serum (Dr. B. Hammock, University of California, Davis) was used as previously described (Enayetallah et al. 2004
Immunofluorescence Labeling
We examined a number of different human tissues using confocal laser scanning microscopy. Composite images of sEH and the peroxisomal marker catalase in hepatocytes and RPTs showed colocalization of the two enzymes in peroxisomes (Figure 1 ). However, in addition to the prominent peroxisomal component, sEH showed a diffuse distribution consistent with cytosolic subcellular localization as well (Figure 1). Renal distal tubules (not shown) showed only diffuse cytosolic staining for sEH, consistent with the previous finding of distal tubules being devoid of peroxisomes (Litwin et al. 1988
Other human tissues evaluated in this study include pancreas, lymphoid tissues, anterior pituitary, prostate, intestinal epithelium (Figure 2 ), lung, and blood vessels (Figure 3 ), all of which previously expressed sEH (Enayetallah et al. 2004
The cell-specific distribution of sEH was another intriguing finding, such as the cells at the periphery of the pancreatic islets, the germinal centers of lymphoid follicles, and differential staining intensities of cells in the anterior pituitary gland (Figure 2); however, further identification of these cell populations is required. Finally, we excluded any detectable mitochondrial and/or nuclear compartmentalization of sEH in any of the tissues evaluated, as represented by nuclear counterstaining (Figure 3) and sEH/porin dual immunofluorescence (Figure 4 ).
Previously, a tripeptide PTS-1 (Gould et al. 1990
Zellweger syndrome (ZS) is one of the peroxisomal disorders characterized by absence of intact peroxisomes and consequent cytosolic degradation of peroxisomal proteins (Purdue and Lazarow 1996
It is not uncommon that limitations of the subcellular fractionation approach may contribute to the discrepancy met with sEH subcellular localization studies (Hollinshead and Meijer 1988
The dual functionality of sEH (Cronin et al. 2003 In conclusion, we report that sEH has tissue-dependent subcellular localization, both peroxisomal and cytosolic in hepatocytes and RPTs and exclusively cytosolic in other sEH-containing human tissues evaluated in this study. Interestingly, sEH was cytosolic in all evaluated tissues despite the existence of two putative peroxisomal targeting sequences. Our results may be suggestive of the existence of two distinct isoforms of the enzyme in different tissues, namely, peroxisomal and cytosolic. Further investigation is required to identify the nature of pre- and/or post-translational modification(s) or mechanism(s) involved. Finally, results from this study warrant further investigation of possible tissue- or compartment-specific enzyme functionality.
This study was supported by NIH Grants ES-011630 and GM-56708. We are grateful to Dr. B. Hammock (University of California, Davis) for providing the polyclonal anti-human soluble epoxide hydrolase rabbit serum. We are also grateful to Dr. Michael Arand (Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Würzburg, Germany) for providing the rat sEH baculovirus.
Received for publication August 9, 2005; accepted October 19, 2005
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