Identification of Gene-based Potential Biomarkers for Cephalexin-induced Nephrotoxicity in Mice

Cephalexin, one of most widely prescribed cephalosporin, has been reported to cause acute renal failure as a side effect in human and experimental animals. Although numerous animal studies have been reported for the cephalosporin nephrotoxicity, the molecular and cellular nephrotoxic mechanisms of cephalexin are still unknown. This investigation evaluated the time-dependent gene expression profile of kidney in mouse during cephalexin induced nephrotoxicity. C57BL/6 female mice were administered either saline or 1,000 mg/kg cephalexin intraperitoneally. Mice were sacrificed at 3, 6, and 24 hr after administration. Blood biochemical and histopathological results indicated cephalexin induced nephrotoxicity. Microarray experiment carried out using Affymetrix $GeneChip^{(R)}$. There were 198 informative genes that were significantly expressed >5-fold versus control at 3, 6, and 24 hr (p<0.01), of which 156 and 42 were up-and down-regulated, respectively. Major classes of up-regulated genes at 3, 6 hr included those involved in MAPK/Jak-STAT signaling pathway and immune response such as cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction and complement and coagulation cascades. At 24 hr, up-regulated genes were mainly involved in regeneration/repair and immune response; down-regulated genes were generally associated with transporters and intermediary metabolism. Among the up-regulated genes at 24 hr, several potential biomarkers on nephrotoxicity such as Kim-1, Fga, Timp1, and Slc34a2 were clustered in a same category. In addition, Tnfrsf12a and Lcn2 which were consistently up-regulated (>5 fold) were also included as potential biomarkers. These results may provide clues for elucidating the mechanism of cephalexin induced nephrotoxicity and evaluating potential biomarkers to assess nephrotoxicity.