Intracellular redox status affects transplasma membrane electron transport in pulmonary arterial endothelial cells

2002 ◽  
Vol 282 (1) ◽  
pp. L36-L43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn P. Merker ◽  
Robert D. Bongard ◽  
Nicholas J. Kettenhofen ◽  
Yoshiyuki Okamoto ◽  
Christopher A. Dawson

Pulmonary arterial endothelial cells possess transplasma membrane electron transport (TPMET) systems that transfer intracellular reducing equivalents to extracellular electron acceptors. As one aspect of determining cellular mechanisms involved in one such TPMET system in pulmonary arterial endothelial cells in culture, glycolysis was inhibited by treatment with iodoacetate (IOA) or by replacing the glucose in the cell medium with 2-deoxy-d-glucose (2-DG). TPMET activity was measured as the rate of reduction of the extracellular electron acceptor polymer toluidine blue O polyacrylamide. Intracellular concentrations of NADH, NAD+, NADPH, and NADP+ were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography of KOH cell extracts. IOA decreased TPMET activity to 47% of control activity concomitant with a decrease in the NADH/NAD+ ratio to 34% of the control level, without a significant change in the NADPH/NADP+ ratio. 2-DG decreased TPMET activity to 53% of control and decreased both NADH/NAD+ and NADPH/NADP+ ratios to 51% and 55%, respectively, of control levels. When lactate was included in the medium along with the inhibitors, the effects of IOA and 2-DG on both TPMET activity and the NADPH/NADP+ ratios were prevented. The results suggest that cellular redox status is a determinant of pulmonary arterial endothelial cell TPMET activity, with TPMET activity more highly correlated with the poise of the NADH/NAD+redox pair.

1998 ◽  
Vol 274 (5) ◽  
pp. L685-L693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn P. Merker ◽  
Lars E. Olson ◽  
Robert D. Bongard ◽  
Meha K. Patel ◽  
John H. Linehan ◽  
...  

Pulmonary endothelial cells are capable of reducing certain electron acceptors at the luminal plasma membrane surface. Motivation for studying this phenomenon comes in part from the expectation that it may be important both as an endothelial antioxidant defense mechanism and in redox cycling of toxic free radicals. Pulmonary arterial endothelial cells in culture reduce the oxidized forms of thiazine compounds that have been used as electron acceptor probes for studying the mechanisms of transplasma membrane electron transport. However, they reduce another commonly studied electron acceptor, ferricyanide, only very slowly by comparison. In the present study, we examined the influence of ascorbate [ascorbic acid (AA)] and dehydroascorbate [dehydroascorbic acid (DHAA)] on the ferricyanide and thiazine reductase activities of the bovine pulmonary arterial endothelial cell surface. The endothelial cells were grown on microcarrier beads so that the reduction of ferricyanide and methylene blue could be studied colorimetrically in spectrophotometer cuvettes and in flow-through cell columns. The ferricyanide reductase activity could be increased 80-fold by adding DHAA to the medium, with virtually no effect on methylene blue reduction. The DHAA effect persisted after the DHAA was removed from the medium. AA also stimulated the ferricyanide reductase activity but was less potent, and the relative potencies of AA and DHAA correlated with their relative rates of uptake by the cells. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that AA is an intracellular electron donor for an endothelial plasma membrane ferricyanide reductase and that the stimulatory effect of DHAA is the result of increasing intracellular AA. Adding sufficient DHAA to markedly increase extracellular ferricyanide reduction had little effect on the plasma membrane methylene blue reductase activity, suggesting that pulmonary arterial endothelial cells have at least two separate transplasma membrane electron transport systems.


2007 ◽  
Vol 293 (3) ◽  
pp. L809-L819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn P. Merker ◽  
Said H. Audi ◽  
Brian J. Lindemer ◽  
Gary S. Krenz ◽  
Robert D. Bongard

The objective was to determine the impact of intact normoxic and hyperoxia-exposed (95% O2 for 48 h) bovine pulmonary arterial endothelial cells in culture on the redox status of the coenzyme Q10 homolog coenzyme Q1 (CoQ1). When CoQ1 (50 μM) was incubated with the cells for 30 min, its concentration in the medium decreased over time, reaching a lower level for normoxic than hyperoxia-exposed cells. The decreases in CoQ1 concentration were associated with generation of CoQ1 hydroquinone (CoQ1H2), wherein 3.4 times more CoQ1H2 was produced in the normoxic than hyperoxia-exposed cell medium (8.2 ± 0.3 and 2.4 ± 0.4 μM, means ± SE, respectively) after 30 min. The maximum CoQ1 reduction rate for the hyperoxia-exposed cells, measured using the cell membrane-impermeant redox indicator potassium ferricyanide, was about one-half that of normoxic cells (11.4 and 24.1 nmol·min−1·mg−1 cell protein, respectively). The mitochondrial electron transport complex I inhibitor rotenone decreased the CoQ1 reduction rate by 85% in the normoxic cells and 44% in the hyperoxia-exposed cells. There was little or no inhibitory effect of NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) inhibitors on CoQ1 reduction. Intact cell oxygen consumption rates and complex I activities in mitochondria-enriched fractions were also lower for hyperoxia-exposed than normoxic cells. The implication is that intact pulmonary endothelial cells influence the redox status of CoQ1 via complex I-mediated reduction to CoQ1H2, which appears in the extracellular medium, and that the hyperoxic exposure decreases the overall CoQ1 reduction capacity via a depression in complex I activity.


2006 ◽  
Vol 290 (3) ◽  
pp. L607-L619 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn P. Merker ◽  
Said H. Audi ◽  
Robert D. Bongard ◽  
Brian J. Lindemer ◽  
Gary S. Krenz

The objective of this study was to examine the impact of chronic hyperoxic exposure (95% O2for 48 h) on intact bovine pulmonary arterial endothelial cell redox metabolism of 2,3,5,6-tetramethyl-1,4-benzoquinone (duroquinone, DQ). DQ or durohydroquinone (DQH2) was added to normoxic or hyperoxia-exposed cells in air-saturated medium, and the medium DQ concentrations were measured over 30 min. DQ disappeared from the medium when DQ was added and appeared in the medium when DQH2was added, such that after ∼15 min, a steady-state DQ concentration was approached that was ∼4.5 times lower for the hyperoxia-exposed than the normoxic cells. The rate of DQ-mediated reduction of the cell membrane-impermeant redox indicator, potassium ferricyanide [Fe(CN)[Formula: see text]], was also approximately twofold faster for the hyperoxia-exposed cells. Inhibitor studies and mathematical modeling suggested that in both normoxic and hyperoxia-exposed cells, NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) was the dominant DQ reductase and mitochondrial electron transport complex III the dominant DQH2oxidase involved and that the difference between the net effects of the cells on DQ redox status could be attributed primarily to a twofold increase in the maximum NQO1-mediated DQ reduction rate in the hyperoxia-exposed cells. Accordingly, NQO1 protein and total activity were higher in hyperoxia-exposed than normoxic cell cytosolic fractions. One outcome for hyperoxia-exposed cells was enhanced protection from cell-mediated DQ redox cycling. This study demonstrates that exposure to chronic hyperoxia increases the capacity of pulmonary arterial endothelial cells to reduce DQ to DQH2via a hyperoxia-induced increase in NQO1 protein and total activity.


2003 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 892-907 ◽  
Author(s):  
Said H. Audi ◽  
Hongtao Zhao ◽  
Robert D. Bongard ◽  
Neil Hogg ◽  
Nicholas J. Kettenhofen ◽  
...  

2004 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn P. Merker ◽  
Robert D. Bongard ◽  
Gary S. Krenz ◽  
Hongtao Zhao ◽  
Viola S. Fernandes ◽  
...  

2004 ◽  
Vol 287 (1) ◽  
pp. L60-L68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis G. Chicoine ◽  
Michael L. Paffett ◽  
Tamara L. Young ◽  
Leif D. Nelin

Nitric oxide (NO) is produced by NO synthase (NOS) from l-arginine (l-Arg). Alternatively, l-Arg can be metabolized by arginase to produce l-ornithine and urea. Arginase (AR) exists in two isoforms, ARI and ARII. We hypothesized that inhibiting AR with l-valine (l-Val) would increase NO production in bovine pulmonary arterial endothelial cells (bPAEC). bPAEC were grown to confluence in either regular medium (EGM; control) or EGM with lipopolysaccharide and tumor necrosis factor-α (L/T) added. Treatment of bPAEC with L/T resulted in greater ARI protein expression and ARII mRNA expression than in control bPAEC. Addition of l-Val to the medium led to a concentration-dependent decrease in urea production and a concentration-dependent increase in NO production in both control and L/T-treated bPAEC. In a second set of experiments, control and L/T bPAEC were grown in EGM, EGM with 30 mM l-Val, EGM with 10 mM l-Arg, or EGM with both 10 mM l-Arg and 30 mM l-Val. In both control and L/T bPAEC, treatment with l-Val decreased urea production and increased NO production. Treatment with l-Arg increased both urea and NO production. The addition of the combination l-Arg and l-Val decreased urea production compared with the addition of l-Arg alone and increased NO production compared with l-Val alone. These data suggest that competition for intracellular l-Arg by AR may be involved in the regulation of NOS activity in control bPAEC and in response to L/T treatment.


Author(s):  
Chen-Shan Chen Woodcock ◽  
Neha Hafeez ◽  
Adam Handen ◽  
Ying Tang ◽  
Lloyd D Harvey ◽  
...  

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) refers to a set of heterogeneous vascular diseases defined by elevation of pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR), leading to right ventricular (RV) remodeling and often death. Early increases in pulmonary artery stiffness in PAH drive pathogenic alterations of pulmonary arterial endothelial cells (PAECs), leading to vascular remodeling. Dysregulation of microRNAs can drive PAEC dysfunction. However, the role of vascular stiffness in regulating pathogenic microRNAs in PAH is incompletely understood. Here, we demonstrated that extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffening downregulated miR-7 levels in PAECs. The RNA binding protein Quaking (QKI) has been implicated in the biogenesis of miR-7. Correspondingly, we found that ECM stiffness up-regulated QKI, and QKI knockdown led to increased miR-7. Downstream of the QKI-miR-7 axis, the serine and arginine rich splicing factor 1 (SRSF1) was identified as a direct target of miR-7. Correspondingly, SRSF1 was reciprocally up-regulated in PAECs exposed to stiff ECM and was negatively correlated with miR-7. Decreased miR-7 and increased QKI and SRSF1 were observed in lungs from PAH patients and PAH rats exposed to SU5416/hypoxia. Lastly, miR-7 upregulation inhibited human PAEC migration, while forced SRSF1 expression reversed this phenotype, proving that miR-7 depended upon SRSF1 to control migration. In aggregate, these results define the QKI-miR-7-SRSF1 axis as a mechanosensitive mechanism linking pulmonary arterial vascular stiffness to pathogenic endothelial function. These findings emphasize implications relevant to PAH and suggest the potential benefit of developing therapies that target this miRNA-dependent axis in PAH.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document