Role of nitric oxide and superoxide anion in leukotoxin-, 9,10-epoxy-12-octadecenoate-induced mitochondrial dysfunction

Selective oxidation of DNA topoisomerase 1 induces systemic sclerosis in the mouse

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a connective tissue disorder of great clinical heterogeneity. Its pathophysiology remains unclear. Our aim was to evaluate the relative roles of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and of the immune system using an original model of SSc. BALB/c and immunodeficient BALB/c SCID mice were injected s.c. with prooxidative agents (hydroxyl radicals, hypochlorous acid, peroxynitrites, superoxide anions), bleomycin, or PBS everyday for 6 wk. Skin and lung fibrosis were assessed by histological and biochemical methods. Autoantibodies were detected by ELISA. The effects of mouse sera on H(2)O(2) production by endothelial cells and on fibroblast proliferation, and serum concentrations in advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) were compared with sera from patients with limited or diffuse SSc. We observed that s.c. peroxynitrites induced skin fibrosis and serum anti-CENP-B Abs that characterize limited SSc, whereas hypochlorite or hydroxyl radicals induced cutaneous and lung fibrosis and anti-DNA topoisomerase 1 autoantibodies that characterize human diffuse SSc. Sera from hypochlorite- or hydroxyl radical-treated mice and of patients with diffuse SSc contained high levels of AOPP that triggered endothelial production of H(2)O(2) and fibroblast hyperproliferation. Oxidized topoisomerase 1 recapitulated the effects of whole serum AOPP. SCID mice developed an attenuated form of SSc, demonstrating the synergistic role of the immune system with AOPP in disease propagation. We demonstrate a direct role for ROS in SSc and show that the nature of the ROS dictates the form of SSc. Moreover, this demonstration is the first that shows the specific oxidation of an autoantigen directly participates in the pathogenesis of an autoimmune disease.

Possible involvement of NO-mediated oxidative stress in induction of rat forestomach damage and cell proliferation by combined treatment with catechol and sodium nitrite

To clarify the mechanisms underlying forestomach carcinogenesis in rats by co-treatment with catechol and sodium nitrite (NaNO2), we investigated the involvement of oxidative stress resulting from reaction of the two compounds. Since generation of semiquinone radical, hydroxyl radical (*OH), and peroxynitrite (ONOO-) arose through the reaction of catechol with NO, we proposed that superoxide resulting from catechol oxidation reacted with excess NO, consequently yielding *OH via ONOO-. Male F344 rats were co-treated with 0.2% catechol in the diet and 0.8% NaNO2 in the drinking water for 2 weeks. Prior to occurrence of histological evidence indicating epithelial injury and hyperplasia, 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine levels in forestomach epithelium significantly increased from 12 h together with appearance of immunohistochemically nitrotyrosine-positive epithelial cells. There were no remarkable changes in rats given each chemical alone. We conclude that oxidative stress due to NO plays an important role in induction of forestomach epithelial damage, cell proliferation, and thus presumably forestomach carcinogenesis.

Leukotoxin-activated human pulmonary artery endothelial cell produces nitric oxide and superoxide anion

To provide evidence that pulmonary endothelial cells exposed to 9,10-epoxy-12-octadecenoate (Lx) produce nitric oxide (NO) and superoxide anion (O(2)(*-), we measured NO production, using a NO chemiluminescence analyzer, and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity, monitoring the conversion of L- [14C] arginine to L- [14C] citrulline, and O(2)(*-) by a fluorescence assay using a fluorescence spectrophotometer with hydroethidine (HE) in human pulmonary artery endothelial cells (HPAEC). NO production and eNOS were increased significantly when HPAEC were incubated with 10 microM Lx, and this effect was inhibited by L-NMMA or in the absence of extracellular Ca2+. Addition of 10 mM HE to the cell suspension spontaneously and continuously caused a subtle increase in fluorescence intensity, due to intracellular oxidation of HE to ethidium bromide (EB). Treatment of the cell suspension with Lx after the addition of HE exerted a dose-dependent increase in intracellular EB fluorescence. Pre-treatment with allopurinol, a xanthine oxidase inhibitor, decreased the intracellular EB fluorescence by 54% in HPAEC incubated with 100 microM Lx. These results show that Lx induces NO production via activation of eNOS and O(2)(*-) production in endothelial cells via activation of cellular xanthine oxidase. Thus, Lx is a bioactive lipid.

Deficiency in inducible nitric oxide synthase protects mice from ozone-induced lung inflammation and tissue injury

Inhalation of ozone causes Type I epithelial cell necrosis and Type II cell hyperplasia and proliferation. This is associated with an accumulation of activated macrophages in the lower lung, which we have demonstrated contribute to tissue injury. Nitric oxide (NO) is a highly reactive cytotoxic macrophage-derived mediator that has been implicated in lung damage. In the present studies we used knockout mice with a targeted disruption of the gene for inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOSII) to analyze the role of NO in ozone-induced lung inflammation and tissue injury. Treatment of wild-type control mice with ozone (0.8 ppm) for 3 h resulted in a time-dependent increase in protein and cells in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, which reached a maximum 24-48 h after exposure. Alveolar macrophages isolated from animals treated with ozone were found to produce increased amounts of NO, as well as peroxynitrite. This was correlated with induction of NOSII protein and nitrotyrosine staining of lung macrophages in tissue sections and in culture. Production of superoxide anion and prostaglandin (PG)E2 by alveolar macrophages was also increased after ozone inhalation. In contrast, alveolar macrophages from NOSII knockout mice did not produce reactive nitrogen intermediates even after ozone inhalation. Moreover, production of PGE2 was at control levels. NOSII knockout mice were also protected from ozone-induced inflammation and tissue injury, as measured by bronchoalveolar lavage protein and cell number. There was also no evidence of peroxynitrite-mediated lung damage in these animals. Taken together, these data demonstrate that NO, produced via NOSII, and potentially, its reactive oxidative product peroxynitrite, play a critical role in ozone-induced release of inflammatory mediators and in tissue injury.

Nitric oxide and mitochondrial respiration

Nitric oxide (NO) and its derivative peroxynitrite (ONOO-) inhibit mitochondrial respiration by distinct mechanisms. Low (nanomolar) concentrations of NO specifically inhibit cytochrome oxidase in competition with oxygen, and this inhibition is fully reversible when NO is removed. Higher concentrations of NO can inhibit the other respiratory chain complexes, probably by nitrosylating or oxidising protein thiols and removing iron from the iron-sulphur centres. Peroxynitrite causes irreversible inhibition of mitochondrial respiration and damage to a variety of mitochondrial components via oxidising reactions. Thus peroxynitrite inhibits or damages mitochondrial complexes I, II, IV and V, aconitase, creatine kinase, the mitochondrial membrane, mitochondrial DNA, superoxide dismutase, and induces mitochondrial swelling, depolarisation, calcium release and permeability transition. The NO inhibition of cytochrome oxidase may be involved in the physiological regulation of respiration rate, as indicated by the finding that isolated cells producing NO can regulate cellular respiration by this means, and the finding that inhibition of NO synthase in vivo causes a stimulation of tissue and whole body oxygen consumption. The recent finding that mitochondria may contain a NO synthase and can produce significant amounts of NO to regulate their own respiration also suggests this regulation may be important for physiological regulation of energy metabolism. However, definitive evidence that NO regulation of mitochondrial respiration occurs in vivo is still missing, and interpretation is complicated by the fact that NO appears to affect tissue respiration by cGMP-dependent mechanisms. The NO inhibition of cytochrome oxidase may also be involved in the cytotoxicity of NO, and may cause increased oxygen radical production by mitochondria, which may in turn lead to the generation of peroxynitrite. Mitochondrial damage by peroxynitrite may mediate the cytotoxicity of NO, and may be involved in a variety of pathologies.

Mitochondrial DNA mutations and age

Apopotic cell death is reported to be prominent in the stable tissues of the failing heart, in cardiomyopathies (CM), in the sinus node of complete heart block, in B cells of diabetes mellitus, and in neurodegenerative diseases. Recently, mitochondrial (mt) control of nuclear apoptosis was demonstrated in the cell-free system. The mt bioenergetic crisis induced by exogenously added factors such as respiratory inhibitors leads to the collapse of mt transmembrane potential, to the opening of the inner membrane pore, to the release of the apoptotic protease activating factors into cytosol, and subsequently to nuclear DNA fragmentation. However, the endogenous factor for the mt bioenegertic crisis in naturally occurring cell death under the physiological conditions without vascular involvement has remained unknown. Recently devised, the total detection system for deletion demonstrates the extreme fragmentation of mtDNA in the cardiac myocytes of senescence, and mt CM harboring maternally inherited point mutations in mtDNA and on the cultured cell line with or without mtDNA disclosed that mtDNA is unexpectedly fragile to hydroxyl radial damage and hence to oxygen stress. The great majority of wild-type mtDNA fragmented into over two hundreds types of deleted mtDNA related to oxidative damage, resulting in pleioplasmic defects in the mt energy transducing system. The mtDNA fragmentation to this level is demonstrated in cardiac myocytes of normal subjects over age 80, of an mtCM patient who died at age 20 and one who died at age 19, of a recipient of heart transplantation at age 7 with severe mtCM, and in mtDNA of a cultured cell line under hyperbaric oxygen stress for two days, leading a majority of cells to apoptotic death on the third day. The extreme fragility of mtDNA could be the missing link in the apoptosis cascade that is the physiological basis of aging and geriatrics of such stable tissues as nerve and muscle.

Leukotoxin (9, 10-epoxy-12-octadecenoate) impairs energy and redox state of isolated perfused rat lung

We investigated the perturbation of energy balance and redox state in leukotoxin (9, 10-epoxy-12octadecenoate) (Lx)- and endothelin-1 (ET-1)-induced lung injury, using isolated perfused rat lungs. To examine any relationship between these parameters, intracellular levels of adenine nucleotides, pyridine coenzymes and glutathione were determined by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in the freeze-dried tissues of isolated rat lungs. The tissue samples were perfused with a physiological salt solution containing either Lx only, Lx plus NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA), Lx plus NG-monomethyl-D-arginine (D-NMMA), Lx plus superoxide dismutase (SOD) or ET-1 only. In isolated perfused lung tissue, 10 mol of Lx caused permeability-increased lung injury, and 10 nM of ET-1, which caused a comparable increase in wet lung weight, evoked pulmonary capillary hypertensive lung injury. Lx-injured lungs showed decreases in the contents of ATP, NADPH, NADH, reduced glutathione (GSH), (2ATP + ADP)/2(ATP + ADP + AMP) ratio (energy charge) and NADH/NAD+ ratio, and increased the contents of ADP and AMP compared with the vehicle control and ET-1-injured lungs. Such effects of Lx were significantly attenuated by pretreatment with 0.4 mM L-NMMA or 500 units/ml of SOD, but not with 0.4 mM D-NMMA. On the other hand, the ET-1-injured lung evidenced decreased tissue GSH. These findings indicate that Lx shifted the lung redox state toward oxidation and that Lx-induced lung injury was involved in the imbalance of the energy and redox state via production of nitric oxide and/or superoxide anion.

Interrelationships between astrocyte function, oxidative stress and antioxidant status within the central nervous system

Astrocytes have, until recently, been thought of as the passive supporting elements of the central nervous system. However, recent developments suggest that these cells actually play a crucial and vital role in the overall physiology of the brain. Astrocytes selectively express a host of cell membrane and nuclear receptors that are responsive to various neuroactive compounds. In addition, the cell membrane has a number of important transporters for these compounds. Direct evidence for the selective co-expression of neurotransmitters, transporters on both neurons and astrocytes, provides additional evidence for metabolic compartmentation within the central nervous system. Oxidative stress as defined by the excessive production of free radicals can alter dramatically the function of the cell. The free radical nitric oxide has attracted a considerable amount of attention recently, due to its role as a physiological second messenger but also because of its neurotoxic potential when produced in excess. We provide, therefore, an in-depth discussion on how this free radical and its metabolites affect the intra and intercellular physiology of the astrocyte(s) and surrounding neurons. Finally, we look at the ways in which astrocytes can counteract the production of free radicals in general by using their antioxidant pathways. The glutathione antioxidant system will be the focus of attention, since astrocytes have an enormous capacity for, and efficiency built into this particular system.