0000000000915078
AUTHOR
A. Esteras
Mitochondrial glutathione oxidation correlates with age-associated oxidative damage to mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondria may be primary targets of free radical damage associated with aging. We have found that mitochondrial glutathione is markedly oxidized with aging in rats and mice. The oxidized to reduced glutathione ratio rises with aging in the liver, kidney, and brain. The magnitude of these changes is much higher than that previously found in whole cells of any species previously studied. In the liver, this ratio (expressing GSSG as a percent of GSH) changed from 0.77 +/- 0.19% (n=5) in young rats to 2.47 +/- 1.25% (n=5) in old ones, i.e., 320% of the controls. In the brain and kidney, values for old rats were, respectively, 600 and 540% higher than those of young rats. A marked oxidation o…
Contraction of human airways by oxidative stress
We examined the in vitro effects of tert-butylhydroperoxide (tBu-OOH) in human bronchial muscle. tert-Butylhydroperoxide produced concentration-dependent contractions of bronchial rings (maximum effect was 56.5 +/- 9.6% of contraction by 1 mM acetylcholine; effective concentration 50% was approximately 100 microM). tert-Butylhydroperoxide (0.5 mM)-induced contraction was enhanced by epithelial removal but abolished by indomethacin (cyclooxygenase inhibitor) and zileuton (lipoxygenase inhibitor). tert-Butylhydroperoxide produced a transient rise in intracellular calcium in human cultured airway smooth muscle cells (HCASMC). The bronchial reactivity to acetylcholine and histamine was not alte…
Inhibitory effects of N-acetylcysteine on superoxide anion generation in human polymorphonuclear leukocytes.
Abstract It has been suggested that reactive oxygen species released by activated polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) in man is one mechanism of tissue injury. Therapeutic action aimed at increasing antioxidant defence mechanisms is still a clinical challenge. This study examines the activity of N-acetylcysteine, a known antioxidant, in the protection of PMN exposed in-vitro to the chemoattractant peptide fMet-Leu-Phe (FMLP), the protein kinase C activator phorbol myristate acetate or the lipid peroxidation promoter t-butyl hydroperoxide. FMLP (3–300 nm) and phorbol myristate acetate (160 pm–160 nm) induced concentration-related superoxide anion generation. Pre-treatment with N-acetylcystein…
Effect of aging on glutathione metabolism. Protection by antioxidants
The free radical, theory of aging suggests that oxygen free radicals may be involved in the aging process. Thus, changes in antioxidant mechanisms may occur with aging. Since glutathione is one of the most effective antioxidant systems in the cell, its metabolism may change with aging. In this chapter we describe experiments which show the involvement of glutathione in the aging process and which provide a rationale for the administration of antioxidants to old organisms to protect them against some of the changes that occur with aging.