12-Lipoxygenase from rat basophilic leukemia cells, an oxygenase with leukotriene A4-synthase activity

Regulation of 12-lipoxygenase in rat intestinal epithelial cells during differentiation and apoptosis induced by sodium butyrate

We evaluated the expression and activity of rat 12-lipoxygenase (LO) in rat intestinal epithelial (RIE) cells during apoptosis and cell differentiation. Sodium butyrate (NaBT) treatment induced wild-type RIE (W-RIE) cells to undergo differentiation and apoptosis. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, a marker of cell differentiation, and DNA fragmentation, an index of apoptosis, were increased by NaBT treatment. Arachidonic acid was metabolized primarily to 12-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (HETE) suggesting induction of 12-LO activity. In contrast, sense-RIE (S-RIE) cells engineered to overexpress COX-2 were resistant to apoptosis by treatment with 5 mM NaBT and NaBT did not induce 12-LO activity. The upregulation of 12-LO expression by NaBT in W-RIE cells was confirmed at both the transcriptional and translational level but 12-LO was undetectable in S-RIE cells following NaBT treatment. The expression of 12-LO mRNA in W-RIE cells occurs as early as 6 h after treatment and reaches maximum expression at 24 h following treatment. This inducible 12-LO was isolated by RT-PCR and identified as rat "leukocyte-type" 12-LO. The level of 12-LO expression in W-RIE cells was dependent on the concentration of NaBT and appears to reflect the extent of cell differentiation. NDGA, a lipoxygenase inhibitor, attenuated induction of ALP activity by NaBT treatment of W-RIE cells. These observations suggested that 12-LO is regulated by treatment with NaBT and is associated with cell differentiation in rat intestinal epithelial cells.

Site-directed mutagenesis studies on the iron-binding domain and the determinant for the substrate oxygenation site of porcine leukocyte arachidonate 12-lipoxygenase

cDNA for arachidonate 12-lipoxygenase of porcine leukocytes was expressed in Escherichia coli. The recombinant 12-lipoxygenase was purified by immunoaffinity chromatography to near homogeneity with a specific activity of about 1.5 mumol/min per mg protein. Each of eight histidine residues, which were well-conserved among various mammalian lipoxygenases and presumed as ligands for non-heme iron, was substituted with leucine by site-directed mutagenesis. Each mutant enzyme was immunoaffinity-purified to near homogeneity. Mutations of His-361, -366 and -541 caused a total loss of enzyme activity, and the iron content was much lower (0.10, 0.06 and 0.06 g atom/mol protein) than that of the wild-type enzyme (0.53). Mutations of His-128 and -356 gave 159% and 162% specific activity of the wild-type enzyme, and the iron contents were 0.55 and 0.52 g atom/mol protein. Substitution of His-426 decreased the activity to 5%, but the iron content was 0.4 g atom/mol protein. The expression level of mutants at His-384 and -393 was too low to precisely determine the iron content. Taken together, His-361, -366 and -541 may play important roles for iron-binding in catalytically active 12-lipoxygenase. Since a high homology of amino acid sequence was known between porcine leukocyte 12-lipoxygenase and mammalian 15-lipoxygenases, we attempted to convert the 12-lipoxygenase to a 15-lipoxygenase. A double mutation of Val-418 and -419 to Ile and Met increased the ratio of 15- and 12-lipoxygenase activities from 0.1 to 5.7.

Lipoxin synthase activity of human platelet 12-lipoxygenase

Human platelets and megacaryocytes generate lipoxins from exogenous leukotriene A4 (LTA4). We examined the role of human 12-lipoxygenase (12-LO) in lipoxin generation with recombinant histidine-tagged human platelet enzyme (6His-12-LO), partially purified 12-LO from human platelets (HPL 12-LO) and, for the purposes of direct comparison, permeabilized platelets. Recombinant and HPL 12-LO catalysed the conversion of intact LTA4 into both lipoxin A4 (LXA4) and lipoxin B4 (LXB4). In contrast, only negligible quantities of LXA4 were generated when recombinant 12-LO was incubated with the non-enzymic hydrolysis products of LTA4.6His-12-LO also converted a non-allylic epoxide, 5(6)-epoxy-(8Z,11Z,14Z)-eicosatrienoic acid. The apparent Km and Vmax. for lipoxin synthase activity of 6His-12-LO were estimated to be 7.9 +/- 0.8 microM and 24.5 +/- 2.5 nmol/min per mg respectively, and the LXB4 synthase activity of this enzyme was selectively regulated by suicide inactivation. Aspirin gave a 2-fold increase in lipoxin formation by platelets but did not enhance the conversion of LTA4 by the recombinant 12-LO. These results provide direct evidence for LXA4 and LXB4 synthase activity of human platelet 12-LO. Moreover, they suggest that 12-LO is a dual-function enzyme that carries both oxygenase and lipoxin synthase activity.