Determination of biomarkers of protein oxidation in tissue and plasma

Incorporation of Oxidized Phenylalanine Derivatives into Insulin Signaling Relevant Proteins May Link Oxidative Stress to Signaling Conditions Underlying Chronic Insulin Resistance

A link between oxidative stress and insulin resistance has been suggested. Hydroxyl free radicals are known to be able to convert phenylalanine (Phe) into the non-physiological tyrosine isoforms ortho- and meta-tyrosine (o-Tyr, m-Tyr). The aim of our study was to examine the role of o-Tyr and m-Tyr in the development of insulin resistance. We found that insulin-induced uptake of glucose was blunted in cultures of 3T3-L1 grown on media containing o- or m-Tyr. We show that these modified amino acids are incorporated into cellular proteins. We focused on insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1), which plays a role in insulin signaling. The activating phosphorylation of IRS-1 was increased by insulin, the effect of which was abolished in cells grown in m-Tyr or o-Tyr media. We found that phosphorylation of m- or o-Tyr containing IRS-1 segments by insulin receptor (IR) kinase was greatly reduced, PTP-1B phosphatase was incapable of dephosphorylating phosphorylated m- or o-Tyr IRS-1 peptides, and the SH2 domains of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) bound the o-Tyr IRS-1 peptides with greatly reduced affinity. According to our data, m- or o-Tyr incorporation into IRS-1 modifies its protein–protein interactions with regulating enzymes and effectors, thus IRS-1 eventually loses its capacity to play its role in insulin signaling, leading to insulin resistance.

Intermittent hypoxemia and oxidative stress in preterm infants

Intermittent hypoxemia events (IH) are common in extremely preterm infants and are associated with many poor outcomes including retinopathy or prematurity, wheezing, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, cognitive or language delays and motor impairment. More recent data in animal and rodent models have suggested that specific patterns of IH may increase the risk for morbidity. The pathway by which these high risk patterns of IH initiate a pathological cascade is unknown but animal models suggest that oxidative stress may play a role. This review describes early postnatal patterns of IH in preterm infants, their relationship with morbidity, oxidative stress biomarkers relevant to the newborn infant and the relationship between IH and reactive oxygen species.