Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the role of free radicals and catalytic metal ions in human disease. The importance of transition metal ions in mediating oxidant damage naturally leads to the question as to what forms of such ions might be available to catalyze radical reactions in vivo . The chapter discusses the metabolism of transition metals, such as iron and copper. It also discusses the chelation therapy that is an approach to site-specific antioxidant protection. The detection and measurement of lipid peroxidation is the evidence most frequently cited to support the involvement of free radical reactions in toxicology and in human disease. A wide range of techniques is available to measure the rate of this process, but none is applicable to all circumstances. The two most popular are the measurement of diene conjugation and the thiobarbituric acid (TBA) test, but they are both subject to pitfalls, especially when applied to human samples. The chapter also discusses the essential principles of the peroxidation process. When discussing lipid peroxidation, it is essential to use clear terminology for the sequence of events involved; an imprecise use of terms such as initiation has caused considerable confusion in the literature. In a completely peroxide-free lipid system, first chain initiation of a peroxidation sequence in a membrane or polyunsaturated fatty acid refers to the attack of any species that has sufficient reactivity to abstract a hydrogen atom from a methylene group.

Role of free radicals and catalytic metal ions in human disease: an overview.

Malondialdehyde and thiobarbituric acid-reactivity as diagnostic indices of lipid peroxidation and peroxidative tissue injury.

Inhibition of root elongation and modification of membrane properties are sensitive responses of plants to aluminium. The present paper reports on the effect of AI on lipid peroxidation and activities of enzymes related to production of activated oxygen species. Soybean seedlings (Glycine max L. cv. Sito) were precultured in solution culture for 3–5 days and then treated for 1–72 h with Al (AICI3) concentrations ranging from 10 to 75 μM at a constant pH of 4.1. In response to Al supply, lipid peroxidation in the root tips (< 2 cm) was enhanced only after longer durations of treatment. Aluminium-dependent increase in lipid peroxidation was intensified by Fe2+ (FeSO4). A close relationship existed between lipid peroxidation and inhibition of root-elongation rate induced by Al and/or Fe toxicity and/or Ca deficiency. Besides enhancement of lipid peroxidation in the crude extracts of root tips due to Al, the activities of superoxide dismutase (EC 1.15.1.1) and peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.7) increased, whereas catalase (EC 1.11.1.6) activity decreased. This indicates a greater generation of oxygen free radicals and related tissue damage. The results suggest that lipid peroxidation is part of the overall expression of Al toxicity in roots and that enhanced lipid peroxidation by oxygen free radicals is a consequence of primary effects of Al on membrane structure.

Effect of aluminium on lipid peroxidation, superoxide dismutase, catalase, and peroxidase activities in root tips of soybean (Glycine max)

Thiobarbituric acid test for monitoring lipid oxidation in meat

Reperfusion of ischemic myocardium is necessary to salvage tissue from eventual death. However, reperfusion after even brief periods of ischemia is associated with pathologic changes that represent either an acceleration of processes initiated during ischemia per se, or new pathophysiological changes that were initiated after reperfusion. This 'reperfusion injury' shares many characteristics with inflammatory responses in the myocardium. Neutrophils feature prominently in this inflammatory component of postischemic injury. Ischemia-reperfusion prompts a release of oxygen free radicals, cytokines and other proinflammatory mediators that activate both the neutrophils and the coronary vascular endothelium. Activation of these cell types promotes the expression of adhesion molecules on both the neutrophils and endothelium, which recruits neutrophils to the surface of the endothelium and initiate a specific cascade of cell-cell interactions, leading first to adherence of neutrophils to the vascular endothelium, followed later by transendothelial migration and direct interaction with myocytes. This specific series of events is a prerequisite to the phenotypic expression of reperfusion injury, including endothelial dysfunction, microvascular collapse and blood flow defects, myocardial infarction and apoptosis. Pharmacologic therapy can target the various components in this critical series of events. Effective targets for these pharmacologic agents include: (a) inhibiting the release or accumulation of proinflammatory mediators, (b) altering neutrophil or endothelial cell activation and (c) attenuating adhesion molecule expression on endothelium, neutrophils and myocytes. Monoclonal antibodies to adhesion molecules (P-selectin, L-selectin, CD11, CD18), complement fragments and receptors attenuate neutrophil-mediated injury (vascular injury, infarction), but clinical application may encounter limitations due to antigen-antibody reactions with the peptides. Humanized antibodies and non-peptide agents, such as oligosaccharide analogs to sialyl Lewis, may prove effective in this regard. Both nitric oxide and adenosine exhibit broad spectrum effects against neutrophil-mediated events and, therefore, can intervene at several critical points in the ischemic-reperfusion response, and may offer greater benefit than agents that interdict at a single point in the cascade. The understanding of the molecular processes regulating actions of neutrophils in ischemic-reperfusion injury may be applicable to other clinical situations, such as trauma, shock and organ or tissue (i.e. vascular conduits) transplantation.

/pdf/the-role-of-neutrophils-in-myocardial-ischemia-reperfusion-4r1366usa8.pdf

The role of neutrophils in myocardial ischemia–reperfusion injury

Antiperoxidant effects of dihydropyridine calcium antagonists.

Protection of cardiac membrane phospholipid against oxidative injury by calcium antagonists

A systematic study of the influence of biological lipid peroxidation conditions on lipid hydroperoxide decomposition to thiobarbituric acid-reactive malondialdehyde is presented. A superoxide-dependent, iron-catalyzed peroxidation system was employed with xanthine oxidase plus hypoxanthine plus ferric iron-adenosine diphosphate complex as free radical generator. Purified cardiac membrane phospholipid (as liposomes) was the peroxidative target, and 15-hydroperoxy-eicosatetraenoic acid was used as a standard lipid hydroperoxide. Exposure of myocardial phospholipid to free radical generator at physiological pH (7.4) and temperature (37 degrees C) was found to support not only phospholipid peroxidation, but also rapid lipid hydroperoxide breakdown and consequent malondialdehyde formation during peroxidation. Under lipid peroxidation conditions, oxidative injury to the phospholipid polyunsaturated fatty acids required superoxide radical and ferric iron-adenosine diphosphate complex, whereas 37 degrees C temperature and trace iron were sufficient for lipid hydroperoxide decomposition to malondialdehyde. Harsh thiobarbituric acid-test conditions following peroxidation were not mandatory for either lipid hydroperoxide breakdown or thiobarbituric acid-reactive malondialdehyde formation. However, hydroperoxide decomposition that had begun in the peroxidation reaction could be completed during a subsequent thiobarbituric acid test in which no lipid autoxidation took place. Iron was more critical than heat in promoting the observed hydroperoxide decomposition to malondialdehyde during the lipid peroxidation reaction at 37 degrees C and pH 7.4. These data demonstrate that the radical generator, at physiological pH and temperature, serves a dual role as both initiator of membrane phospholipid peroxidation and promotor of lipid peroxide breakdown and thiobarbituric acid-reactive malondialdehyde formation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Thiobarbituric Acid-reactive Malondialdehyde Formation During Superoxide-dependent, Iron-catalyzed Lipid Peroxidation: Influence of Peroxidation Conditions

When exposed to xanthine oxidase (superoxide)-dependent, iron-promoted Fenton chemistry, purified cardiac membranes evidenced, by the thiobarbituric acid (TBA) test, a virtually instantaneous peroxidative response with a maximal linear rate of 5.8 nmol malondialdehyde (MDA)-equivalents/mEquivalents lipid ester reacted/min. Yet when the lipids purified from these same membranes and reconstituted into liposomes were peroxidized under identical reaction conditions, the TBA test indicated that a pronounced (∼20-min) lag period preceded a maximal peroxidation rate of only 2.1 nmol MDA-equivalents/ mEquivalents lipid ester reacted/min. After 120 min of peroxidation, the cardiac membranes yielded some 300 nmol TBA-reactive MDA-equivalents/mEquivalent ester, whereas the isolated membrane lipids evidenced ∼40% less TBA-reactivity. To verify that these quantitative and kinetic differences in membrane (phospho)-lipid peroxidation occurred with removal of the lipids from their membrane milieu, the MDA produced during both cardiac membrane peroxidation and the peroxidation of the lipids derived therefrom was isolated as its free anion by ion-pair high-pressure liquid chromatography. As quantified spectrophotometrically, true MDA production during myocardial membrane peroxidation was identical in kinetics and in amount to the production of TBA-reactive substance from the peroxidized isolated membrane lipids. These results demonstrate that significant non-MDA. TBA-reactive species are generated during the peroxidation of cardiac membranes, especially before the maximal rates of bona fide MDA production. As a direct consequence, artifactual levels and kinetics of membrane lipid peroxidation do result.

Analysis of cardiac membrane phospholipid peroxidation kinetics as malondialdehyde: Nonspecificity of thiobarbituric acid-reactivity

The vitamin E (α-tocopherol) and free and bound malondialdehyde (MDA) in ventricular heart muscle and myocardial membrane from Wistar-Kyoto (W/K) normotensive and spontaneously hypertensive (SH) rats have been measured directly by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance (TBA-RS) in the myocardium and heart-muscle membrane of the two strains was also quantified by a colorimetric TBA test. It was found that SH-rat myocardium and myocardial membrane contained more than 3-fold less α-tocopherol than did heart muscle and cardiac membrane of the normotensive rat. Coincident with this relative vitamin E deficiency were several-fold greater amounts of MDA and TBA-RS in SH-rat myocardium and myocardial membrane. Most (87%) of the MDA in SH-rat heart muscle, but only 40% in W/K-rat heart muscle, was free (i.e., unbound). These results offer direct evidence that SH-rat myocardium is vitamin E-deficient and highly peroxidative, relative to cardiac muscle of the normotensive W/K parent strain. The lower vitamin E content of SH-rat myocardium is particularly striking, because SH-rat myocardial membrane was found to contain ∼35% more phospholipid than myocardial membrane in the W/K rat. Although the amounts of myocardial TBA-RS are greater in the SH strain, they do not reflect the actual MDA profiles of the heart muscles or the heart membranes and cannot be used as a quantitative index of cardiac oxidative-injury status due to non-MDA TBA-RS in both strains.

Barbara Burghardt

Papers

Antiperoxidant effects of dihydropyridine calcium antagonists.

Protection of cardiac membrane phospholipid against oxidative injury by calcium antagonists

Thiobarbituric Acid-reactive Malondialdehyde Formation During Superoxide-dependent, Iron-catalyzed Lipid Peroxidation: Influence of Peroxidation Conditions

Analysis of cardiac membrane phospholipid peroxidation kinetics as malondialdehyde: Nonspecificity of thiobarbituric acid-reactivity

Cardiac membrane vitamin E and malondialdehyde levels in heart muscle of normotensive and spontaneously-hypertensive rats.