Superoxides, formation

Grau, A.J. and Berger, E. (1992). Granulocyte adhesion, defor-mability, and superoxide formation in acute stroke. Stroke 23, 33-39. 

Porras, A.G., Olson, J.S. and Palmer, G. (1981). The reaction of reduced xanthine oxidase with oxygen kinetics of peroxide and superoxide formation. J. Biol. Chem. 256, 9096-9103. 

Sinaceur, J., Ribiere, C., Sabourault, D. and Nordmann, R. (1985). Superoxide formation in liver mitochondria during ethanol intoxication possible role in alcohol toxicity. In Free Radicals in Liver Injury (eds. G. Poli, K.H. Cheeseman, M.U. Dianzani and T.F. Slater) pp. 175-177. IRL Press, Oxford. 

Harbour, J.R. and Bolton, J.R. 1975. Superoxide formation in spinach chloroplasts electron spin resonance detection by spin trapping. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 64 803-807. 

It should also be mentioned that superoxide and not nitric oxide production by eNOS may have implications for atherosclerosis and septic shock due to imbalance between NO and superoxide formation, for example due to an increase in TNF-a production [164]. These pathophysiological functions of NO synthases will be considered in detail in Chapter 31. 

Now, we may consider in detail the mechanism of oxygen radical production by mitochondria. There are definite thermodynamic conditions, which regulate one-electron transfer from the electron carriers of mitochondrial respiratory chain to dioxygen these components must have the one-electron reduction potentials more negative than that of dioxygen Eq( 02 /02]) = —0.16 V. As the reduction potentials of components of respiratory chain are changed from 0.320 to +0.380 V, it is obvious that various sources of superoxide production may exist in mitochondria. As already noted earlier, the two main sources of superoxide are present in Complexes I and III of the respiratory chain in both of them, the role of ubiquinone seems to be dominant. Although superoxide may be formed by the one-electron oxidation of ubisemiquinone radical anion (Reaction (1)) [10,22] or even neutral semiquinone radical [9], the efficiency of these ways of superoxide formation in mitochondria is doubtful. 

The above examples show the ability of microsome reductases to oxidize substrates in the processes where the first step is a one-electron reduction, which may or may not be accompanied by superoxide formation. However, cytochrome P-450 can directly oxidize some substrates including amino derivatives. For example, mitochondrial oxidation (dehydrogenation) of 1,4-dihydropyridines apparently proceeds by two mechanisms via hydrogen atom abstraction or one-electron oxidation [48 50]. Guengerich and Bocker [49] have shown that... 

The regulation of superoxide formation by SOD can affect both in vivo and ex vivo lipid peroxidation. Thus, SOD inhibited lipid peroxidation in cats following regional intestinal ischemia and reperfusion [33], Similarly, the treatment of rats with polyethylene glycol superoxide dismutase (PEG-SOD) prevented the development of lipid peroxidation in hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury [34], Interesting data have been reported by Bartoli et al. [35]. They showed that SOD depletion in the liver of rats feeding with a copper-deficient diet... 

Thus, LOX-catalyzed oxidative processes are apparently effective producers of superoxide in cell-free and cellular systems. (It has also been found that the arachidonate oxidation by soybean LOX induced a high level of lucigenin-amplified CL, which was completely inhibited by SOD LG Korkina and TB Suslova, unpublished data.) It is obvious that superoxide formation by LOX systems cannot be described by the traditional mechanism (Reactions (1)-(7)). There are various possibilities of superoxide formation during the oxidation of unsaturated compounds one of them is the decomposition of hydroperoxides to alkoxyl radicals. These radicals are able to rearrange into hydroxylalkyl radicals, which form unstable peroxyl radicals, capable of producing superoxide in the reaction with dioxygen. 

Later on, the importance of xanthine oxidase as the producer of reoxygenation injury was questioned at least in the cells with low or no xanthine oxidase activity. Thus, it has been shown that human and rabbit hearts, which possess extremely low xanthine oxidase activity, nonetheless, develop myocardial infractions and ischemia-reperfusion injury [9], However, recent studies supported the importance of the xanthine oxidase-catalyzed oxygen radical generation. It has been showed that xanthine oxidase is partly responsible for reoxygenation injury in bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells [10], human umbilical vein and lymphoblastic leukemia cells [11], and cerebral endothelial cells [12], Zwang et al. [11] concluded that xanthine dehydrogenase may catalyze superoxide formation without conversion to xanthine oxidase using NADH instead of xanthine as a substrate. 

It has been found that the 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA (HMG CoA) inhibitors statins (atorvastatin, pravastatin, and cerivastatin), widely prescribed cholesterol-lowering agents, are able to inhibit phorbol ester-stimulated superoxide formation in endothelial-intact segments of the rat aorta [64] and suppress angiotensin II-mediated free radical production [65]. Delbose et al. [66] found that statins inhibited NADPH oxidase-catalyzed PMA-induced superoxide production by monocytes. It was suggested that statins can prevent or limit the involvement of superoxide in the development of atherosclerosis. It is important that statin... 

However, a more discouraged fact is that benzoquinone accelerated SOD-inhibitable part of cytochrome c reduction, which is usually considered as a reliable proof of superoxide formation. Such a phenomenon has been first shown by Winterbourn [7], who suggested that SOD may shift the equilibrium of Reaction (4) to the right even for nonredox cycling quinones. The artificial enhancement of superoxide production by SOD in the presence of quinones was demonstrated in the experiments with lucigenin-amplified CL, in which benzoquinone was inhibitory [6],... 

Spin trapping has been widely used for superoxide detection in various in vitro systems [16] this method was applied for the study of microsomal reduction of nitro compounds [17], microsomal lipid peroxidation [18], xanthine-xanthine oxidase system [19], etc. As DMPO-OOH adduct quickly decomposes yielding DMPO-OH, the latter is frequently used for the measurement of superoxide formation. (Discrimination between spin trapping of superoxide and hydroxyl radicals by DMPO can be performed by the application of hydroxyl radical scavengers, see below.) For example, Mansbach et al. [20] showed that the incubation of cultured enterocytes with menadione or nitrazepam in the presence of DMPO resulted in the formation of DMPO OH signal, which supposedly originated from the reduction of DMPO OOH adduct by glutathione peroxidase. 

Gardner and Fridovich [85] proposed that the inactivation of aconitase might be used as an assay of superoxide formation in cells. The mechanism of the interaction of superoxide with aconitases has been considered in Chapter 21. As follows from data presented in that chapter, peroxynitrite is also able to inactivate aconitases rapidly therefore, this method cannot be a specific assay of superoxide detection. 

Histamine inhibits neutrophil chemotaxis due to HR2 triggering, which is mimicked by impromidine (HR2 agonist), but not by betahistine (HRl agonist). In addition, histamine inhibits neutrophil activation, superoxide formation and degranulation via HR2 [40]. Downregulation of... 

Similarly, catechin polymers formed upon horseradish peroxidase-catalyzed oxidation of catechin or polycondensation of catechin with aldehydes prove much more efficient than catechin (at identical monomer concentration) at inhibiting XO and superoxide formation. A more detailed investigation with the catechin-acetaldehyde polycondensate (which is expected to form in wine because of the microbial oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde) shows that inhibition is noncompetitive to xanthine and likely occurs via binding to the FAD or Fe/S redox centers involved in electron transfers from the reduced molybdenum center to dioxygen with simultaneous production of superoxide. 

There are various possibilities of superoxide formation during the oxidation of unsaturated compounds one of them is the decomposition of hydroperoxides to alkoxyl radicals. These radicals are able to rearrange into hydroxylalkyl radicals, which form unstable peroxyl radicals, capable of producing superoxide in the reaction with dioxygen. 

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