Bcl-2 is an integral membrane protein located mainly on the outer membrane of mitochondria. Overexpression of Bcl-2 prevents cells from undergoing apoptosis in response to a variety of stimuli. Cytosolic cytochrome c is necessary for the initiation of the apoptotic program, suggesting a possible connection between Bcl-2 and cytochrome c, which is normally located in the mitochondrial intermembrane space. Cells undergoing apoptosis were found to have an elevation of cytochrome c in the cytosol and a corresponding decrease in the mitochondria. Overexpression of Bcl-2 prevented the efflux of cytochrome c from the mitochondria and the initiation of apoptosis. Thus, one possible role of Bcl-2 in prevention of apoptosis is to block cytochrome c release from mitochondria.

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Oxidative stress is two sided: Whereas excessive oxidant challenge causes damage to biomolecules, maintenance of a physiological level of oxidant challenge, termed oxidative eustress, is essential for governing life processes through redox signaling. Recent interest has focused on the intricate ways by which redox signaling integrates these converse properties. Redox balance is maintained by prevention, interception, and repair, and concomitantly the regulatory potential of molecular thiol-driven master switches such as Nrf2/Keap1 or NF-κB/IκB is used for system-wide oxidative stress response. Nonradical species such as hydrogen peroxide (HO) or singlet molecular oxygen, rather than free-radical species, perform major second messenger functions. Chemokine-controlled NADPH oxidases and metabolically controlled mitochondrial sources of HO as well as glutathione- and thioredoxin-related pathways, with powerful enzymatic back-up systems, are responsible for fine-tuning physiological redox signaling. This makes for a rich research field spanning from biochemistry and cell biology into nutritional sciences, environmental medicine, and molecular knowledge-based redox medicine.

Oxidative stress is often defined as an imbalance of pro-oxidants and antioxidants, which can be quantified in humans as the redox state of plasma GSH/GSSG. Plasma GSH redox in humans becomes oxidized with age, in response to oxidative stress (chemotherapy, smoking), and in common diseases (type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease). However, data also show that redox of plasma GSH/GSSG is not equilibrated with the larger plasma cysteine/cystine (Cys/CySS) pool, indicating that the "balance" of pro-oxidants and antioxidants cannot be defined by a single entity. The major cellular thiol/disulfide systems, including GSH/GSSG, thioredoxin- 1 (-SH(2)/-SS-), and Cys/CySS, are not in redox equilibrium and respond differently to chemical toxicants and physiologic stimuli. Individual signaling and control events occur through discrete redox pathways rather than through mechanisms that are directly responsive to a global thiol/disulfide balance such as that conceptualized in the common definition of oxidative stress. Thus, from a mechanistic standpoint, oxidative stress may be better defined as a disruption of redox signaling and control. Adoption of such a definition could redirect research to identify key perturbations of redox signaling and control and lead to new treatments for oxidative stress-related disease processes.

Free radical-induced macromolecular damage has been studied extensively as a mechanism of oxidative stress, but large-scale intervention trials with free radical scavenging antioxidant supplements show little benefit in humans. The present review summarizes data supporting a complementary hypothesis for oxidative stress in disease that can occur without free radicals. This hypothesis, which is termed the "redox hypothesis," is that oxidative stress occurs as a consequence of disruption of thiol redox circuits, which normally function in cell signaling and physiological regulation. The redox states of thiol systems are sensitive to twoelectron oxidants and controlled by the thioredoxins (Trx), glutathione (GSH), and cysteine (Cys). Trx and GSH systems are maintained under stable, but nonequilibrium conditions, due to a continuous oxidation of cell thiols at a rate of about 0.5% of the total thiol pool per minute. Redox-sensitive thiols are critical for signal transduction (e.g., H-Ras, PTP-1B), transcription factor binding to DNA (e.g., Nrf-2, nuclear factor-B), receptor activation (e.g., ␣IIb␤3 integrin in platelet activation), and other processes. Nonradical oxidants, including peroxides, aldehydes, quinones, and epoxides, are generated enzymatically from both endogenous and exogenous precursors and do not require free radicals as intermediates to oxidize or modify these thiols. Because of the nonequilibrium conditions in the thiol pathways, aberrant generation of nonradical oxidants at rates comparable to normal oxidation may be sufficient to disrupt function. Considerable opportunity exists to elucidate specific thiol control pathways and develop interventional strategies to restore normal redox control and protect against oxidative stress in aging and age-related disease.thioredoxin; glutathione; cysteine; hydrogen peroxide; redox signaling; protein thiol ONE OF THE GREAT REDOX BIOLOGISTS of the past century, Howard S. Mason, professed that to advance science, a scientist must interpret observations at the limit of their meaning. The present review of the redox biology of thiol systems addresses the possibility that disruption of the function and homeostasis of thiol systems is the most central feature of oxidative stress that contributes to mechanisms of aging and age-related disease. I have termed this the "redox hypothesis" to facilitate distinction from free radical hypotheses.Many proteins contain redox-sensitive thiols, and reactions of thiol systems occur largely by nonradical two-electron transfers. Accumulating data show that central thiol-disulfide couples are maintained under nonequilibrium conditions in biological systems. This presents a condition wherein changes in abundance and distribution of redox catalysts and changes in rates of generation of relevant oxidants (e.g., peroxides) and precursors for NADPH supply can account for pathological effects of oxidative stress through altered functions of enzymes, receptors, transporters, transcription factors, and structural elements, without free ra...

A sudden increase in permeability of the inner mitochondrial membrane, the so-called mitochondrial permeability transition, is a common feature of apoptosis and is mediated by the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mtPTP). It is thought that the mtPTP is a protein complex formed by the voltage-dependent anion channel, members of the pro-and anti-apoptotic BAX-BCL2 protein family, cyclophilin D, and the adenine nucleotide (ADP/ATP) translocators (ANTs) 1,2 . The latter exchange mitochondrial ATP for cytosolic ADP and have been implicated in cell death. To investigate the role of the ANTs in the mtPTP, we genetically inactivated the two isoforms of ANT [3][4][5] in mouse liver and analysed mtPTP activation in isolated mitochondria and the induction of cell death in hepatocytes. Mitochondria lacking ANT could still be induced to undergo permeability transition, resulting in release of cytochrome c. However, more Ca 2+ than usual was required to activate the mtPTP, and the pore could no longer be regulated by ANT ligands. Moreover, hepatocytes without ANT remained competent to respond to various initiators of cell death. Therefore, ANTs are non-essential structural components of the mtPTP, although they do contribute to its regulation.To investigate the role of ANTs in the mtPTP, we inactivated both the heart-muscle (Ant1) and the systemic (Ant2) ANT isoform genes in the mouse liver. Humans have three ANT genes 6,7 , whereas results of complementary DNA library screening 5 and northern and western analyses 3 have suggested that mouse has only two Ant genes. To verify this, we screened the Celera and Ensembl mouse genome assemblies, as well as the respective EST 1a). Targeted embryonic stem cells (Fig. 1b) were used to introduce the conditional floxed allele into the mouse germ line. Liver-specific inactivation of the Ant2 fl allele was achieved by breeding Ant2 fl mice with an Alb-Cre line of transgenic mice that expresses CRE under control of the liver-specific albumin promoter, which results in the excision of exons 3 and 4 of Ant2 (Fig. 1a) Endogenous respiration rates of ANT1/ANT2-deficient mitochondria were almost twice that of control mitochondria (34.58 ± 1.6 versus 18.12 ± 1.1 nmol O min -1 per mg protein) (Fig. 2b) and the mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔP = ΔΨ + ΔpH) of the ANT-deficient mitochondria was higher than that of controls (191.7 ± 4.9 versus 172.9 ± 3.5 mV). Analysis of the specific activity of OXPHOS enzyme complexes in ANT-deficient mitochondria revealed that complex IV (cytochrome c oxidase, COX) was increased more than twofold compared with controls (P < 0.01) (Fig. 2c). This was confirmed by western blot analysis, which revealed that the mitochondrial COX subunit I (COI) and cytochrome c proteins were more abundant in the ANT-deficient mitochondria (Fig. 2d). Hence, the increased respiration rate is likely to be the result of the specific upregulation in COX activity, suggesting that COX activity may modulate respiration rate. Because ΔP is the product of proton pumpin...

The functional interpretation of high throughput metabolomics by mass spectrometry is hindered by the identification of metabolites, a tedious and challenging task. We present a set of computational algorithms which, by leveraging the collective power of metabolic pathways and networks, predict functional activity directly from spectral feature tables without a priori identification of metabolites. The algorithms were experimentally validated on the activation of innate immune cells.

Diverse functions of eukaryotic cells are optimized by organization of compatible chemistries into distinct compartments defined by the structures of lipid-containing membranes, multiprotein complexes and oligomeric structures of saccharides and nucleic acids. This structural and chemical organization is coordinated, in part, through cysteine residues of proteins which undergo reversible oxidation-reduction and serve as chemical/structural transducing elements. The central thiol/ disulfide redox couples, thioredoxin-1, thioredoxin-2, GSH/GSSG and cysteine/cystine (Cys/CySS), are not in equilibrium with each other and are maintained at distinct, non-equilibrium potentials in mitochondria, nuclei, the secretory pathway and the extracellular space. Mitochondria contain the most reducing compartment, have the highest rates of electron transfer and are highly sensitive to oxidation. Nuclei also have more reduced redox potentials but are relatively resistant to oxidation. The secretory pathway contains oxidative systems which introduce disulfides into proteins for export. The cytoplasm contains few metabolic oxidases and this maintains an environment for redox signaling dependent upon NADPH oxidases and NO synthases. Extracellular compartments are maintained at stable oxidizing potentials. Controlled changes in cytoplasmic GSH/GSSG redox potential are associated with functional state, varying with proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. Variation in extracellular Cys/CySS redox potential is also associated with proliferation, cell adhesion and apoptosis. Thus, cellular redox biology is inseparable from redox compartmentalization. Further elucidation of the redox control networks within compartments will improve the mechanistic understanding of cell functions and their disruption in disease.