Effects of superoxide on the erythrocyte membrane.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to I Fridovich.
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Streptococcus faecalis contains a single superoxide dismutase that has been purified to homogeneity with a 55% yield. This enzyme has a molecular weight of 45,000 and is composed of two subunits of equal size. It contains 1.3 atoms of manganese per molecule. Its amino acid composition was determined and is compared with that for the superoxide dismutases from Escherichia coli, Streptococcus mutans, and Mycobacterium lepraemurium. When used as an antigen in rabbits, the S. faecalis enzyme elicited the formation of a precipitating and inhibiting antibody. This antibody cross-reacted with the superoxide dismutase present in another strain of S. faecalis, but neither inhibited nor precipitated the superoxide dismutases in a wide range of other bacteria, including several other streptococci, such as S. pyogenes, S. pneumoniae, and S. lactis. The inhibiting antibody was used to suppress the superoxide dismutase activity present in cell extracts of S. faecalis and thus allow the demonstration that 17% of the total oxygen consumption by such extracts, in the presence of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, was associated with the production of O(2) (-). A variety of bacterial species were surveyed for their content of superoxide dismutases. The iron-containing enzyme was distinguished from the manganese-containing enzyme through the use of H(2)O(2), which inactivates the former more readily than the latter. Some of the bacteria appeared to contain only the iron enzyme, others only the manganese enzyme, and still others both. Indeed, some had multiple, electrophoretically distinct superoxide dismutases in both categories. There was no discernible absolute relationship between the types of superoxide dismutases in a particular organism and their Gram-stain reaction.
Superoxide radicals (O2-) are commonplace products of the biological reduction of oxygen. Their intrinsic reactivity and ability to generate other more reactive entities constitute a threat to cellular integrity. Superoxide dismutases, enzymes that catalytically scavenge these radicals, have evolved to meet this threat. These metalloenzymes are essential for respiring organisms to survive. Several compounds, such as the antibiotic streptonigrin and the herbicide paraquat, augment the production rate of O2- inside cells. This accounts for the oxygen-enhancement of their lethality. Some bacteria respond to this artificially increased rate of O2- production by synthesizing additional superoxide dismutase. Ionizing radiation generates O2- in its passage through oxygenated aqueous media, and superoxide dismutase added to the suspending medium, decreases the oxygen-enhancement of the lethality of such irradiation of the bacterium Escherichia coli. Production of O2- by activated neutrophils is clinically significant, since it is an important component of the bactericidal actions of these cells and the inflammatory process. Superoxide dismutases exert an anti-inflammatory action that may be useful in managing inflammations.
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Xanthine oxidase, acting on acetaldehyde under aerobic conditions, produces a flux of O2- and H2O2 which attacks artificial liposomes and washed human erythrocytes. The liposomes were peroxidized and the erythrocytes suffered oxidation of hemoglobin followed by lysis. The oxidation of hemoglobin followed by lysis. The oxidation of hemoglobin, within the exposed erythrocytes, could be largely prevented by prior conversion to carbon monoxyhemoglobin, without preventing lysis. Hemolysis thus appeared to be a consequence of direct oxidative attack on the cell stroma. The enzyme-generated flux of O2- and of H2O2 also inactivated the xanthine oxidase. Superoxide dismutase or catalase, present in the suspending medium, protected the liposomes against peroxidation, the erythrocytes against lysis, and the xanthine oxidase against inactivation. Scavengers of O2('deltag), such as histidine or 2,5-dimethylfuran, which do not react with O2- or H2O2, also prevented peroxidation of liposomes and lysis of erythrocytes when present at low concentrations. In contrast a scavenger of OH-, such as mannitol was ineffective at low concentrations and provided significant protection only at much higher concentrations. It is proposed that O2- and H2O2 cooperated in producing OH- and O2('deltag), which were the proximate causes of lipid peroxidation and of hemolysis.
The major superoxide dismutase of the unicellular red alga, Porphyridium cruentum, has been purified to homogeneity. This enzyme has a molecular weight of 40,000 and is composed of two subunits of equal size, which are joined by noncovalent interactions. Manganese constituted 0.13% of this superoxide dismutase. T,is is equivalent to 1 manganese atom/molecule of enzyme. Cyanide at 5 mM and H2O2 at 3 mM had no effect on the activity of this superoxide dismutase but 20 mM azide caused 50% inhibition. The isoelectric point, assessed by isoelectric focusing, is 4.2. The optical spectrum of this enzyme exhibited a maximum at 280 nm (Em = 49,000 M-1 cm-1) and a broad band centered at 450 nm (Em = 170 M-1 cm-1). Exposure to a pH of 3.8 in the presence of 8.0 M urea labilized the manganese and allowed the preparation of a colorless and inactive apoenzyme which could be reconstituted by subsequent treatment with MnCl2. The reconstituted enzyme was found to have regained both manganese and activity. The amino acid composition was also determined. The P. cruentum superoxide dismutase did not cross-react with antibody to the Escherichia coli manganese-containing superoxide dismutase.
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Anaerobically grown Escherichia coli K-12 contain only one superoxide dismutase and that is the iron-containing isozyme found in the periplasmic space. Exposure to oxygen caused the induction of a manganese-containing superoxide dismutase and of another, previously undescribed, superoxide dismutase, as well as of catalase and peroxidase. These inductions differed in their responsiveness towards oxygen. Thus the very low levels of oxygen present in deep, static, aerobic cultures were enough for nearly maximal induction of the manganese-superoxide dismutase. In contrast, induction of the new superoxide dismutase, catalase, and peroxidase required the much higher levels of oxygen achieved in vigorously agitated aerobic cultures. Anaerobically grown cells showed a much greater oxygen enhancement of the lethality of streptonigrin than did aerobically grown cells, in accord with the proposal that streptonigrin can serve as an intracellular source of superoxide. Anaerobically grown cells in which enzyme inductions were prevented by puromycin were damaged by exposure to air. This damage was evidenced both as a decline in viable cell count and as structural abnormalities evident under an electron microscope.
Conditions for continuous culture of Escherichia coli K-12 His- Thi- under glucose limitation were established. Both the capacity for respiration, at D greater than 0.2/h, and specific activity of superoxide dismutase increased as a function of specific growth rate, whereas peroxidase and catalase were either invariant with or inversely related to this growth rate. The abrupt increase in the availability of glucose, as a means of elevating the growth rate, was followed by an increase in superoxide dismutase, which reached a plateau before there was a significant increase in the growth rate. Thus, an increase in superoxide dismutase appeared to be a prerequisite for an increase in the rate of growth. Cells that had higher levels of superoxide dismutase, because of varying specific growth rates, were more resistant to the toxicity of hyperbaric oxygen. Superoxide dismutase thus behaved like an essential defense against the toxicity of oxygen. Sensitivity towards streptonigrin increased with specific growth rate in the range of 0.09 to 0.25/h but decreased with further increases in the growth rate. Since this antibiotic has been shown to shunt electrons to oxygen, with concomitant production of O2-, these results indicated a progressive deficiency of reducing power at growth rates below 0.25/h and a surfeit of reducing power with progressively greater protection against O2- by superoxide dismutase at growth rates greater than 0.25/h.
All of the superoxide dismutase isozymes of Escherichia coli have been shown to occur in the cell matrix, and none have been found in the periplasm. This was the case with both E. coli B and E. coli K-12, whether grown on a low phosphate medium or on a Trypticase soy-yeast extract medium. Alkaline phosphatase was used as a marker of the periplasm; adenosine deaminase and glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase were used as matrix markers, and consistent results were obtained by osmotic shock, spheroplast formation, and use of a diazonium salt that penetrates the periplasm but cannot cross the plasma membrane. A previous report that the iron-containing superoxide dismutase of E. coli is a periplasmic enzyme is now seen to have been in error.
Growth of Escherichia coli, based upon the fermentation of glucose, is associated with a low intracellular level of superoxide dismutase. Exhaustion of glucose, or depression of the pH due to accumulation of organic acids, causes these organisms to then obtain energy from the oxidative degradation of other substances present in a rich medium. This shift in metabolism is associated with a marked increase in the rate of synthesis of superoxide dismutase. Depression of the synthesis of superoxide dismutase by glucose is not due to catabolite repression since it is not eliminated by cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate and since alpha-methyl glucoside does not mimic the effect of glucose. Moreover, glucose itself no longer depresses superoxide dismutase synthesis when the pH has fallen low enough to cause a shift to a non-fermentative metabolism. It appears likely that superoxide dismutase is controlled directly or indirectly by the intracellular level of O2- and that glucose depressed the level of this enzyme because glucose metabolism is not associated with as rapid a production of O2- as is the metabolsim of many other substances. In accord with this view is the observation that paraquat, which can increase the rate of production of O2- by redox cycling, caused a rapid and marked increase in superoxide dismutase.
The action of xanthine oxidase upon acetaldehyde or xanthine at pH 10.2 has been shown to be accompanied by substantial accumulation of O2- during the first few minutes of the reaction. H2O2 decreases this accumulation of O2- presumably because of the Haber-Weiss reaction (H2O2+O2- leads to OH- +OH+O2) and very small amounts of superoxide dismutase eliminate it. This accumulation of O2- was demonstrated in terms of a burst of reduction of cytochrome c, seen when the latter compound was added after aerobic preincubation of xanthine oxidase with its substrate. The kinetic peculiarities of the luminescence seen in the presence of luminol, which previously led to the proposal of H2O4-, can now be satisfactorily explained entirely on the basis of known radical intermediates.