The cytoprotective effect of Trolox demonstrated with three types of human cells

Trolox, a hydrophilic analogue of alpha-tocopherol, was reported to scavenge peroxyl radicals better than vitamin E in sodium dodecyl sulfate micelles and in liposomes. However, it was not known if Trolox protects human cells against oxyradical damage or if it acts as an antioxidant there. Here we demonstrate that Trolox prolonged substantially the survival of human ventricular myocytes and hepatocyte against oxyradicals generated with xanthine oxidase plus hypoxanthine, and prevented lysis of red cells exposed to an azo-initiator (2,2'-azo-bis(2-amidinopropane) HCl). Note that Trolox did not inhibit xanthine oxidase. In each cell type, the protection by Trolox was dose dependent and surpassed those given by such water-soluble antioxidants as ascorbic acid, superoxide dismutase, and (or) catalase, each examined at or near its optimal level in the same system. Using hepatocytes as a model, we further observed that Trolox reduced markedly the quantity of phospholipid conjugated dienes (a chemical imprint of oxyradical damage) in cells despite their exposure to oxyradicals. These data suggested that Trolox behaves as an antioxidant in cells as illustrated in hepatocytes.     

Sickle cell membranes and oxidative damage.

Sickle erythrocytes and their membranes are susceptible to endogenous free-radical-mediated oxidative damage which correlates with the proportion of irreversibly sickled cells. The suppression of incubation-induced oxidative stress by antioxidants, free radical scavengers and an iron chelator suggest that oxidation products of membrane-bound haemoglobin contribute towards the pathology of the disease.     

甲醛固定对GFP发光特性的影响

绿色荧光蛋白(GFP)能够作为报告分子对活体细胞中特定基因的时空表达进行实时追踪,因此广泛应用于生物学研究领域。在用GFP对细胞活动进行追踪的实验中,常有无法在取样后及时对样品进行荧光观察的情况,此时需要先将样品进行固定以便对其进行观测。然而,不恰当的细胞固定方法会导致胞内GFP荧光信号强度减弱、位置改变等后果。甲醛是最常用的细胞固定剂,也常被用于固定表达GFP蛋白的细胞样品。但对甲醛固定GFP样品的报道多是针对于真核细胞,且固定效果也存在较大差异。文章系统地探索了甲醛浓度、固定时间、固定缓冲液种类对两种细菌(E.coli及鱼腥蓝细菌Anabaena PCC7120)胞内GFP信号的影响。结果显示,较低浓度(≤1%)的甲醛处理2h后,细胞的荧光强度在1d后仍可保持80%以上,胞内荧光点无弥散现象发生。具有相近pH的几种常见缓冲液对荧光强度的影响无显著差异。随着甲醛浓度的增加、固定时间的延长、溶液pH的增加(中性至偏碱性),细胞中的荧光强度会逐渐降低。     

Denaturation studies reveal significant differences between GFP and blue fluorescent protein

Green fluorescent protein (GFP) is an unusually stable fluorescent protein that belongs to a family of related auto-fluorescent proteins (AFPs). These AFPs have been generated from jellyfish GFP by mutating the amino acids in the chromophore or its vicinity. Variants that emit light in the blue region (Blue Fluorescent Protein, BFP), red region, or yellow region are readily available and are widely used in diverse applications. Previously, we had used fluorescence spectroscopy to study the effect of pH on the denaturation of GFP with SDS, urea, and heat. Surprisingly, we found that SDS, urea or heat, did not have any significant effect on the fluorescence of GFP at pH 7.5 or 8.5, however, at pH 6.5, the protein lost all fluorescence within a very short period of time. These results suggested that GFP undergoes a structural/stability shift between pH 6.5 and 7.5, with the GFP structure at pH 6.5 being very sensitive to denaturation by SDS, urea, and heat. In the present study, we wanted to explore whether the stability or structure of the closely related BFP is also pH dependent. As expected, we found heat-induced denaturation and renaturation of BFP to be pH dependent, very much like GFP. However, when exposed to other denaturants like urea/heat or SDS we found BFP to behave very differently than GFP. Unlike GFP, which at pH 8.5 and 7.5 is very resistant to SDS-induced denaturation, BFP readily lost about 20% of its fluorescence at pH 8.5 and about 60% fluorescence at pH 7.5. Also, our denaturation and renaturation studies show that under certain conditions, BFP is more stable than GFP, such that under conditions where GFP is completely denatured, BFP still retained significant fluorescence. Taken together, our preliminary results show that despite being very similar in both amino acid sequences and overall structures, there may be subtle and important structural/conformational differences between BFP and GFP.     

Fluorescence changes in human gamma-globulin induced by free-radical activity

Low-intensity ultraviolet irradiation was used to generate free-radical activity in lipid-free human gamma-globulin. The changes were monitored by fluorescence spectroscopy and gel filtration chromatography. The pattern and the effect of thiol compounds, free-radical scavengers and antioxidants point to a free-radical-mediated process. Initial energy uptake was probably in the region of aromatic amino acid residues, followed by complex intramolecular rearrangements. Irradiation led to the formation of molecular species and complexes whose fluorescence characteristics were different from those of native gamma-globulin and indistinguishable from those observed in inflammatory exudates.     

Albumin-bound bilirubins protect human ventricular myocytes against oxyradical damage.

Synthetic delta-bilirubin (i.e., bilirubin that is covalently bonded to albumin) and, to a lesser extent, bilirubin that is physically adsorbed to albumin substantially prolonged the survival of human ventricular myocytes against in situ generated oxyradicals. This cytoprotection, manifested at micromolar concentrations of either form of bilirubin, surpasses those given by unconjugated bilirubin alone, by equimolar levels of albumin (which has some cytoprotective activity), by known antioxidants ascorbate, mannitol, or Trolox, and by oxyradical scavenging enzymes superoxide dismutase (24,200 IU/L) plus catalase (92,000 IU/L) on the same cells. Our human cell-based data provide the first direct evidence that albumin-bound bilirubins, especially delta bilirubin, are potent circulating cytoprotectors. The latter may be important in defending, among others, the myocardium, which is much less equipped in antioxidant defences than for example the liver or intestines.     

Invited Review Free Radicals in Foods

During the last decade increasing attention has been given to the role of free radicals in biological oxidations. The subject has been of increasing interest to both the food scientist and the physiologist. Free radical scavengers in the form of both indigenous and added antioxidants are necessary for the successful preservation of food; free radicals are increasingly being implicated in the onset of, among others, ischaemic heart disease and for protection against these diseases it is suggested that the dietary intake of the antioxidant vitamins should be increased especially for diets high in polyunsaturated fats. ^1,2 Convenience and snack foods which absorb substantial amounts of frying oils are being increasingly consumed. Since poly-unsaturated fatty acids are particularly susceptible to oxidation by free radicals during the storage, cooking and frying of foods, the potential risk of exposure to lipid degradation products' is likely to have increased. In foods the non-enzymic and lipoxygenase catalysed oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids, β-carotene and vitamin A can result in the loss of essential nutrients and the development of off-flavours.     

Free radicals and acute pancreatitis: Much ado about … something

Abstract

There is a convincing body of evidence that oxidative stress is involved in the pathogenesis of acute pancreatitis. The effects of different radical scavengers suggested that reactive oxygen metabolites are generated at very early stage of disease and contribute to amplify the pancreatic damage. Oxidative stress is also involved in the progression of the disease from a local damage to a systemic organ failure. However, therapeutic use of antioxidants failed to clearly show a clinical benefit in different trials. Therefore, although antioxidants alone seem to be not enough for the treatment of severe acute pancreatitis, future combined therapeutic strategies should include antioxidants in its composition.     

Effect of the point mutation H148G on GFPmut2 unfolding kinetics by fluorescence spectroscopy

We have used fluorescence spectroscopy techniques such as fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and fluorescence anisotropy decay on a wide time range, from nanoseconds to seconds, to investigate the unfolding kinetics induced by guanidinium chloride of GFPMut2 and its point mutation H148G, which has proved to be relevant for GFP photochemistry and photophysics. The mutation affects the unfolding kinetics of GFP leading to a much faster process at alkaline pH values, where protonation dynamics is negligible, that can be ascribed to a twofold role of His148, either as a proton shutter towards the chromophore and as a conformation stabiliser. For both mutants a soft region located near beta-strand 3 is found that starts to gain flexibility in the ns range at denaturant concentrations far lower than those required to turn off the chromophore fluorescence, as derived from the anisotropy decay of an extrinsic probe covalently bound to the proteins.     

Oxidant induced injury of erythrocyte—Role of green tea leaf and ascorbic acid

Oxidant and free radical-generating system were used to promote oxidative damage in erythrocytes. Among the oxidants used, phenylhydrazine represents one of the most investigated intracellular free radical-generating probes, which in the presence of haemoglobin autooxidises and give rise to hydroxyl radical, a marker for cellular damage. Erythrocyte, as a single cell, is a good model to be used for studying the haemolytic mechanism of anaemia. Our present investigations reveal increased lipid peroxidation of erythrocyte using phenylhydrazine as well as other oxygen-generating systems (hydrogen peroxide, iron with hydrogen peroxide). It has further been observed that not only lipid peroxidation, phenylhydrazine causes significant elevation in methemoglobin formation, catalase activity and turbidity, in the above system, which are the typical characteristics of haemolytic anaemia. However, exogenous administration of green tea leaf extract and ascorbic acid as natural antioxidants and free radical scavengers were shown to protect separately increased lipid peroxidation caused by phenylhydrazine, though the degree of protection is more in case of green tea leaf extract than ascorbic acid. Results suggest that oxidative damage in vivo due to haemolytic disease may be checked to some extent by using natural antioxidants. (Mol Cell Biochem 276: 205–210, 2005)     

Stabilization of NADH dehydrogenase in mitochondria by adenosine phosphates

It is known that one of the reasons leading to the development of neuroligical disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, is the damage of the mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase. We suggest that it happens when NADH dehydrogenase loses connection with its coenzyme flavine mononucleotide (FMN) in the active center. This process is blocked by the enzyme substrate NADH or by the reaction product NAD. In this work we have developed a method based on fluorescence spectroscopy to monitor the stability of FMN in isolated rat liver mitochondria. It was observed that this process is strongly blocked by adenine analogs ATP, ADP, and AMP. Adenine, adenosine, NADPH, nicotine amide, and nicotine acid did not prevent the FMN loss. The obtained data could be used as a basis for construction of synthetic analogues of adenosine phosphates for the treatment of mitochondrial diseases.     

Display of green fluorescent protein on Escherichia coli cell surface

In this study, expression of green fluorescence protein (GFP) on the external surface of Escherichia coli was achieved by construction of a fusion protein between Lpp-OmpA hybrid and a GFP variant, GFPmut2. The GFP was fused in frame to the carboxyl-terminus of Lpp-OmpA fusion previously shown to direct various other heterologous proteins to E. coli cell surface. Western blot analysis of membrane fractions identified the Lpp-OmpA-GFP fusion protein with the expected size (43 kDa). Immunofluorescence microscopy, immunoelectron microscopy, protease and extracellular pH sensitivity assays further confirmed that GFP is anchored on the outer membrane. The GFP displayed on the E. coli outer surface retained its fluorescence and was not susceptible to the indigenous outer membrane protease OmpT even though there are two putative OmpT proteolytic sites present in GFP. Optimization of the expression conditions was conducted using fluorometry, eliminating cumbersome immuno-labeling procedures. Surface-displayed GFP could be used in a variety of applications including screening of polypeptide libraries, development of live vaccines, construction of whole cell allosteric biosensors, and signal transduction studies.     

Oxyradicals under UV-b stress and their quenching by antioxidants

Formation of oxyradicals under UV-B stress was investigated using cucumber cotyledons. UV-B radiation induced production of free radicals which were analyzed by ESR spectroscopy. Evidence was obtained for the formation of superoxide and hydroxyl radicals in the tissues by comparing PBN-adducts formed with radicals obtained by chemical autooxidation of KO2 and Fenton's reaction. Addition of superoxide dismutase (SOD) to the reaction mixture partially reduced the intensity of signals confirming the production of superoxide radical as well as hydroxyl radicals. These radicals were quenched in vitro by the natural antioxidants alpha-tocopherol, ascorbic acid and benzoquinone. Changes in the level of antioxidants were also monitored under UV-B stress. The endogenous level of ascorbic acid was enhanced and alpha-tocopherol level was reduced in the tissue after exposure to UV-B radiation. The present report happens to be the first direct evidence obtained for the formation of superoxide and hydroxyl radicals in plant tissues exposed to UV-B radiation.     

Renal damage mediated by oxidative stress: a hypothesis of protective effects of red wine

Over the last decade, oxidative stress has been implicated in the pathogenesis of a wide variety of seemingly unrelated renal diseases. Epidemiological studies have documented an association of moderate wine consumption with a decreased risk of cardiovascular and neurological diseases; however, similar studies in the kidney are still lacking. The kidney is an organ highly vulnerable to damage caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS), likely due to the abundance of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the composition of renal lipids. ROS are involved in the pathogenic mechanism of conditions such as glomerulosclerosis and tubulointerstitial fibrosis. The health benefits of moderate consumption of red wine can be partly attributed to its antioxidant properties. Indeed, the kidney antioxidant defense system is enhanced after chronic exposure to moderate amounts of wine, a response arising from the combined effects of ethanol and the nonalcoholic components, mainly polyphenols. Polyphenols behave as potent ROS scavengers and metal chelators; ethanol, in turn, modulates the activity of antioxidant enzymes. Therefore, a hypothesis that red wine causes a decreased vulnerability of the kidney to the oxidative challenges could be proposed. This view is partly supported by direct evidences indicating that wine and antioxidants isolated from red wine, as well as other antioxidants, significantly attenuate or prevent the oxidative damage to the kidney. The present hypothesis paper provides a collective body of evidence suggesting a protective role of moderate wine consumption against the production and progression of renal diseases, based on the existing concepts on the pathophysiology of kidney injury mediated by oxidative stress.     

An efficient strategy for high throughput screening of recombinant integral membrane protein expression and stability

Membrane proteins account for about 30% of the genomes sequenced to date and play important roles in a variety of cellular functions. However, determining the three-dimensional structures of membrane proteins continues to pose a major challenge for structural biologists due to difficulties in recombinant expression and purification. We describe here a high throughput pipeline for Escherichia coli based membrane protein expression and purification. A ligation-independent cloning (LIC)-based vector encoding a C-terminal green fluorescence protein (GFP) tag was used for cloning in a high throughput mode. The GFP tag facilitated expression screening in E. coli through both cell culture fluorescence measurements and in-gel fluorescence imaging. Positive candidates from the GFP screening were subsequently sub-cloned into a LIC-based, GFP free vector for further expression and purification. The expressed, C-terminal His-tagged membrane proteins were purified via membrane enrichment and Ni-affinity chromatography. Thermofluor technique was applied to screen optimal buffers and detergents for the purified membrane proteins. This pipeline has been successfully tested for membrane proteins from E. coli and can be potentially expanded to other prokaryotes.     

Monitoring in planta bacterial infection at both cellular and whole-plant levels using the green fluorescent protein variant GFPuv

* Green fluorescent protein (GFP) labeling of bacteria has been used to study their infection of and localization in plants, but strong autofluorescence from leaves and the relatively weak green fluorescence of GFP-labeled bacteria restrict its broader application to investigations of plant-bacterial interactions. * A stable and broad-host-range plasmid vector (pDSK-GFPuv) that strongly expresses GFPuv protein was constructed not only for in vivo monitoring of bacterial infection, localization, activity, and movement at the cellular level under fluorescence microscopy, but also for monitoring bacterial disease development at the whole-plant level under long-wavelength ultraviolet (UV) light. * The presence of pDSK-GFPuv did not have significant impact on the in vitro or in planta growth and virulence of phytobacteria. A good correlation between bacterial cell number and fluorescence intensity was observed, which allowed us to rapidly estimate the bacterial population in plant leaf tissue. We demonstrated that GFPuv-expressing bacteria can be used to screen plants that are compromised for nonhost disease resistance and Agrobacterium attachment. * The use of GFPuv-labeled bacteria has a wide range of applications in host-bacterial interaction studies and bacterial ecology-related research.     

Validation of the morphologic end point of necrosis in rat hepatocytes subjected to oxyradical damage.

We have used phase-contrast microscopy to determine a necrotic end point of the order of minutes in primary hepatocytes exposed to oxyradicals generated with xanthine oxidase plus hypoxanthine. This study examines whether the morphologic end point thus determined agrees with other criteria of cell necrosis. When 95-100% of the cells were shown to be necrotic by our morphologic assay, transmission electron microscopy confirmed definitive subcellular evidence of cell death, trypan blue exclusion revealed a 92% loss in the ability of cells to exclude the dye, and there was a 47% specific release of 51Cr (versus a 50% theoretical value). In contrast, the appearance of extracellular aspartate aminotransferase activity was relatively slow and did not corroborate the morphologic end point. In summary, we have validated the morphologic end point in our cell-based assay of oxyradical damage.     

TwinGFP, a marker for cell cycle analysis in transiently transfected cells

Green fluorescent protein (GFP) is widely used as a marker to identify transfected cells either by fluorescence microscopy or flow cytometry. However, cell cycle analysis with propidium iodide typically employs ethanol for cell permeabilization. During this treatment, soluble GFPs generally leak out of cells, probably due to their small size. We have now significantly improved cellular retention by creating an in-frame fusion of two GFP DNA sequences, thereby generating a double-sized GFP (TwinGFP, 57 kDa). Permeabilized HeLa cells transfected with pTwinGFP showed a strong green fluorescent signal localized throughout the cells that could easily be detected by fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry, in contrast to cells transfected with a standard single GFP construct. The experiment indicates that protein size constitutes the major determinant of the loss of fluorescence in permeabilized cells. As a proof of principle, pTwinGFP was cotransfected with the p53 tumor suppressor gene into HeLa cells, and cells transiently expressing p53 could be identified and phenotypically characterized by flow cytometry.     

The Oxyradical-Scavenging Activity of Azelaic Acid in Biological Systems

We have previously shown that azelaic acid, a C₉ dicarboxylic acid, as disodium salt (C₉2Na) is capable of inhibiting significantly the hydroxylation of aromatic compounds and the peroxidation of arachidonic acid due to reactive hydroxyl radicals (HO'). In this paper we have investigated the ability of C₉2Na to inhibit the oxyradical induced toxicity towards two tumoral cell lines (Raji and IRE 1) and normal human fibroblasts (HF). Oxyradicals were generated either by the addition of polyphenols to the medium, or by direct irradiation of phosphate buffered-saline in which cells were incubated from 15min prior to incubation in normal medium. The effects of C₉2Na were compared with those obtained by mannitol (MAN), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT). C₉2Na, MAN, SOD and CAT significantly decreased the polyphenol toxicity towards cell lines cultured up to 24 h. After 48 h of incubation the above compounds lost the capability of protecting cells from polyphenol toxicity. This suggests that the toxic role of oxyradicals (O₂^-, H₂O₂, HO^.) persists for about 24h and, subsequently other toxic mechanisms must be involved, which are not affected by oxyradical scavengers. SOD and CAT did not show any protective effect on UV induced cytotoxicity, while both C₉2Na and MAN were capable of reducing significantly the UV damage towards cell lines, even after 48 h incubation. This can be explained by the fact that UV cytotoxicity depends mainly on the generation of HO', that can be “scavenged” by C₉2Na or MAN, but not by SOD or CAT. C₉2Na and MAN were not significantly degraded in the period during which they afford protection against HO^..     

Fullerenes in radiobiology

Molecule of fullerene, having a spherical or ellipsoidal shape, is made of rings consisting of five or six carbon atoms, combined with conjugated pi bonds. Delocalization of pi electrons in the molecule of fullerene makes it easy to scavenge free radicals. But, despite being the effective antioxidants and radical scavengers fullerenes may be prooxidants by reactive oxygen species generation. Mammalian cells consist mainly of water (about 70%). Thus, the radical and non-radical products of water radiolysis are the basic sources of radiation damage to biomolecules. Reactive oxygen species, such as hydroxyl (HO*) and superoxide (O2-*) radicals and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), are responsible for radiation-induced damage in aerated systems. Free radical mechanism of radiation damage suggests that scavengers of free radicals should protect cellular structures against damage. Electron donor compounds should also exhibit protective properties towards oxidized functional groups by reducing them. However, the electron transfer from fullerene to oxygen may generate superoxide radical. The shape of fullerenes allows them to act as carriers of radioactive atoms of isotopes used in the therapy and medical diagnostics. Fullerenes and their derivatives due to its properties are new promising chemicals for application in radiobiology. Fullerenes may be radioprotectors, radiosensitizer or auxiliary compounds in diagnostic imaging. What they are depends on the experimental system used.