ArticleBMC bioinformatics2006
Analysis of gene expression changes in relation to toxicity and tumorigenesis in the livers of Big Blue transgenic rats fed comfrey (Symphytum officinale).
Article in BMC bioinformatics, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ethnopharmacological insights intoFrontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Ethnobotany and Toxicity Status of Medicinal Plants with Cosmeceutical Relevance from Eastern Cape, South Africa.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- The Effects and Potential Mechanism of Oil Palm Phenolics in Cardiovascular Health: A Review on Current Evidence.Nutrients · 2020Review
- Dietary phytochemicals in breast cancer research: anticancer effects and potential utility for effective chemoprevention.Environmental health and preventive medicine · 2018Review
- Toxic phytochemicals and their potential risks for human cancer.Cancer prevention research (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2015Review
- Methysticin and 7,8-dihydromethysticin are two major kavalactones in kava extract to induce CYP1A1.Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology · 2011Article
- Differential transcriptomic profiles effected by oil palm phenolics indicate novel health outcomes.BMC genomics · 2011Article
- Metabolism, genotoxicity, and carcinogenicity of comfrey.Journal of toxicology and environmental health. Part B, Critical reviews · 2010Article
- Comfrey (Symphytum Officinale. l.) and Experimental Hepatic Carcinogenesis: A Short-term Carcinogenesis Model Study.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2010Article
- Genotoxicity of pyrrolizidine alkaloids.Journal of applied toxicology : JAT · 2010Review
- Gene expression profiling as an initial approach for mechanistic studies of toxicity and tumorigenicity of herbal plants and herbal dietary supplements.Journal of environmental science and health. Part C, Environmental carcinogenesis & ecotoxicology reviews · 2010Review
- Toxicogenomic biomarkers for liver toxicity.Journal of toxicologic pathology · 2009Article
- Analysis of gene expression changes of drug metabolizing enzymes in the livers of F344 rats following oral treatment with kava extract.Food and chemical toxicology : an international journal published for the British Industrial Biological Research Association · 2009Article
- Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference of the MidSouth Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Society.BMC bioinformatics · 2007Article
- Gene expression changes induced by the tumorigenic pyrrolizidine alkaloid riddelliine in liver of Big Blue rats.BMC bioinformatics · 2007Article
- Comparison of gene expression profiles altered by comfrey and riddelliine in rat liver.BMC bioinformatics · 2007Article
- Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference of the MidSouth Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Society. Introduction.BMC bioinformatics · 2006Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundComfrey is consumed by humans as a vegetable and a tea, and has been used as an herbal medicine for more than 2000 years. Comfrey, however, is hepatotoxic in livestock and humans and carcinogenic in experimental animals. Our previous study suggested that comfrey induces liver tumors by a genotoxic mechanism and that the pyrrolizidine alkaloids in the plant are responsible for mutation induction and tumor initiation in rat liver.
resultsIn this study, we identified comfrey-induced gene expression profile in the livers of rats. Groups of 6 male transgenic Big Blue rats were fed a basal diet and a diet containing 8% comfrey roots, a dose that resulted in liver tumors in a previous carcinogenicity bioassay. The animals were treated for 12 weeks and sacrificed one day after the final treatment. We used a rat microarray containing 26,857 genes to perform genome-wide gene expression studies. Dietary comfrey resulted in marked changes in liver gene expression, as well as in significant decreases in the body weight and increases in liver mutant frequency. When a two-fold cutoff value and a P-value less than 0.01 were selected, 2,726 genes were identified as differentially expressed in comfrey-fed rats compared to control animals. Among these genes, there were 1,617 genes associated by Ingenuity Pathway Analysis with particular functions, and the differentially expressed genes in comfrey-fed rat livers were involved in metabolism, injury of endothelial cells, and liver injury and abnormalities, including liver fibrosis and cancer development.
conclusionThe gene expression profile provides us a better understanding of underlying mechanisms for comfrey-induced hepatic toxicity. Integration of gene expression changes with known pathological changes can be used to formulate a mechanistic scheme for comfrey-induced liver toxicity and tumorigenesis.
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