Age-dependent decrease of hepatic geranylgeranoic acid and its oral supplementation prevents spontaneous hepatoma in C3H/HeN mice

Aim Geranylgeranoic acid (GGA) has been developed as a preventive agent against second primary hepatoma. Recently, GGA was reported to induce cell death in human hepatoma cells via TLR4-mediated pyroptosis. We have reported that GGA is enzymatically biosynthesized from mevalonic acid in human hepatoma-derived cells and that endogenous GGA is found in most organs of rats. In addition, we found that upregulation of endogenous GGA levels by zaragozic acid A (ZAA) induced cell death in human hepatoma-derived cells. Therefore, we investigated the age-related changes of hepatic GGA and the possibility of suppressing hepatocarcinogenesis by GGA supplementation using male C3H/HeN mice that spontaneously develop hepatoma. Methods We measured endogenous GGA and mRNA of MAOB, a key enzyme of GGA biosynthesis, in the liver of male C3H/HeN mice aged 6–93 weeks. We also tried suppressing spontaneous hepatocarcinogenesis by a single administration of GGA to C3H/HeN mice. Results Hepatic GGA content and Maob mRNA expression level age-dependently decreased in male C3H/HeN mice, some of which produced spontaneous hepatoma in 2 years. A single oral administration of GGA at 11 months of age significantly prevented hepatoma in terms of the number and weight of tumors per mouse at 23 months. Oral supplementation with GGA or geranylgeraniol significantly increased endogenous hepatic GGA contents dose-dependently, and ZAA dramatically upregulated hepatic GGA. Conclusion In this study, we found an age-dependent decrease in hepatic endogenous GGA in male C3H/HeN mice and efficient prevention of spontaneous hepatoma by a single administration of GGA at 11 months of age.