The study of ethanol effects on intracellular transport and membrane biogenesis in rat hepatocytes revealed that, during synthesis of transport vesicles, the cytosolic phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase incorporated into the membrane of Golgi transport vesicles and a portion of the vesicular phosphatidylinositol was phosphorylated to phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate. Association of the enzyme with Golgi transport vesicles and the transport to the apical portion of the cell membrane was not affected by 0 to 120 mM ethanol, but was dependent on the presence of the p85 subunit of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase. In the presence of ATP-enriched cytosol and calcium ions, association of Golgi transport vesicles with the apical membrane was followed by phospholipase A2-specific hydrolysis of phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate and incorporation of the transport vesicle membrane into the apical membrane. Association of Golgi transport vesicles with apical membranes was not affected by preincubation of the cell membrane or Golgi transport vesicles with 0 to 120 mM ethanol, but was inhibited when the p85 phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase was incorporated into the membrane before incubation with Golgi transport vesicles. The fusion of Golgi transport vesicles with the apical membrane and generation of lysophosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate and arachidonate was inhibited with EGTA or after depletion of ATP from cytosol. Results of these studies provide evidence that phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and phospholipase A2 activities are crucial for the final step of exocytotic transport. The process consists of two stages. First, the p85 subunit of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase is involved in the specific association of the vesicle with membrane receptor, and that is followed by phospholipase A2-specific lysophospholipid generation, perturbation of the membranes, and fusion of the transport vesicle membrane with the apical membrane. Addition of ethanol to the in vitro transport system decreased production of Golgi transport vesicles, but had no effect on their association with apical membrane or fusion with the membrane.

Our findings demonstrate that H. pylori lipopolysaccharide can cause gastric mucosal responses typical of acute gastritis and identify the lipopolysaccharide as a virulence factor responsible for the induction of gastric epithelial cell apoptosis by H. pylori.

In this study, we investigated gastric epithelial cells' apoptosis and tumor necrosis factor-c~ (TNF-cc) expression with ethanol-induced mucosal injury, and the effect of antiulcer agents on this process.Rats received intragastric pretreatment with the agent or vehicle followed lh later by ethanol, and after 30 min the gastric mucosa was assessed for TNF-c~ and apoptosis. In the absence of antiulcer agents, ethanol caused extensive mucosal lesions accompanied by a 9.5-fold enhancement in apoptosis and a 2.5-fold increase in TNF-c~. Pretreatment with omeprazole evoked a 54% reduction in TNF-c~, but had no effect on ethanol-induced mucosal damage or apoptosis, the sucralfate reduced the extent of mucosal damage by 95%, apoptosis by 39% and TNF-c~ by 52%, while ebrotidine not only prevented mucosal injury and rise in TNF-c~, but also caused a 70% reduction in epithelial cells' apoptosis. The results demonstrate that ethanol-induced gastric epithelial cells apoptosis triggered by the enhancement in mucosal TNF-c~ is efficiently counteracted by ebrotidine.

SUMMARYIn this study we investigated buccal mucosal cells' apoptosis and the expression of regulatory cytokJnes, tumor necrosis factor-~ (TNF-~) and inetrleukin-4(IL-4) with chronic ethanol ingestion. The buccal mucosa of rats maintained for 23 days on alcohol-containing and control liquid diet was assessed for IL-4 and TNF-c~ content, and the extent of epithelial cells apoptosis. While the expression of TNF-c~ in alcohol diet group showed a significant increase (1.9-fold) over that of the controls, less apparent differences between the two groups were observed in the content of IL-4 (141.8 ___28.2 vs. 119.8 _+7.3 pg/mg protein). The DNA fragmentation assays revealed that alcohol diet group also exhibited a 3.5-fold enhancement in buccal mucosal cells apoptosis. Moreover, the apoptotic index showed positive correlation (r = 0.53) with the extent of induced changes in TNF-~. These results demonstrate that ethanol-induced buccal mucosal cells apoptosis is triggered by the enhancement in TNF-~ expression.

SUMMARYApoptosis, the process of programmed cell death, involves activation of caspase proteases cascade that remains under the regulatory control of nitric oxide. In this study, we investigated the activity of a key apoptotic protease, caspase-3, and the expression of nitric oxide synthase-2 (NOS-2) associated with buccal epithelial cells apoptosis induced by chronic ethanol diet. The assays revealed that a 7.9-fold enhancement in buccal epithelial cells apoptosis, observed in the alcohol diet group, was accompanied by a 37.6-fold increase in caspase-3 activity and a 10.1-fold increase in NOS-2. Furthermore, the expression of NOS-2 showed a positive correlation (r = 0.92) with the extent of changes induced in caspase-3 activity. These results implicate caspase-3 in the process of alcohol-induced epithelial cells apoptosis, and point towards participation of NOS-2 in the amplification of the cell death signaling cascade.

Marine mammals such as northern elephant seals (NES) routinely experience hypoxemia and ischemia-reperfusion events to many tissues during deep dives with no apparent adverse effects. Adaptations to diving include increased antioxidants and elevated oxygen storage capacity associated with high hemoprotein content in blood and muscle. The natural turnover of heme by heme oxygenase enzymes (encoded by HMOX1 and HMOX2) produces endogenous carbon monoxide (CO), which is present at high levels in NES blood and has been shown to have cytoprotective effects in laboratory systems exposed to hypoxia. To understand how pathways associated with endogenous CO production and signaling change across ontogeny in diving mammals, we measured muscle CO and baseline expression of 17 CO-related genes in skeletal muscle and whole blood of three age classes of NES. Muscle CO levels approached those of animals exposed to high exogenous CO, increased with age, and were significantly correlated with gene expression levels. Muscle expression of genes associated with CO production and antioxidant defenses (HMOX1, BVR, GPX3, PRDX1) increased with age and was highest in adult females, while that of genes associated with protection from lipid peroxidation (GPX4, PRDX6, PRDX1, SIRT1) was highest in adult males. In contrast, muscle expression of mitochondrial biogenesis regulators (PGC1A, ESRRA, ESRRG) was highest in pups, while genes associated with inflammation (HMOX2, NRF2, IL1B) did not vary with age or sex. Blood expression of genes involved in regulation of inflammation (IL1B, NRF2, BVR, IL10) was highest in pups, while HMOX1, HMOX2 and pro-inflammatory markers (TLR4, CCL4, PRDX1, TNFA) did not vary with age. We propose that ontogenetic upregulation of baseline HMOX1 expression in skeletal muscle of NES may, in part, underlie increases in CO levels and expression of genes encoding antioxidant enzymes. HMOX2, in turn, may play a role in regulating inflammation related to ischemia and reperfusion in muscle and circulating immune cells. Our data suggest putative ontogenetic mechanisms that may enable phocid pups to transition to a deep-diving lifestyle, including high baseline expression of genes associated with mitochondrial biogenesis and immune system activation during postnatal development and increased expression of genes associated with protection from lipid peroxidation in adulthood.

The outcome of chronic ethanol consumption recorded in liver by in situ staining of the genomic DNA in fragmented nuclei indicates the course of cellular events that has been coined as apoptosis or programmed cell death. Hence, we designed the study to determine which ethanol-induced modification of the cellular make-up is responsible for the hastening the cell damage. The in vitro assays were performed with cellular organelles and cytosol prepared from hepatocytes derived from rats subjected to 9 weeks of chronic alcohol consumption. The results were compared with the pair-fed controls receiving isocaloric liquid diet. In the initial phase of the studies, we established that the process of apoptosis was not triggered by the aberrant activity of neutral or acidic sphingomyelinase. The hepatocytes derived from alcohol and control diets manifested equal enzymatic activity. The de novo synthesis of sphingoid bases and ceramides in the alcohol-derived sample of endoplasmic reticulum was reduced, but the in situ apoptosis was up to 36-fold higher than in the control. Also, the isolated hepatocytes contained a 2- to 4-fold higher amount of nucleosomal fragments in the cytosolic extracts. The endosomes from liver hepatocytes of ethanol-consuming rats, in the presence of the cytosol and mitochondria from pair-fed controls, disclosed 2 to 3 times higher apoptotic potential than sample consisting of ethanol-derived fractions only, and 3 to 5 times higher than the control-derived fractions. The substantial increase in apoptosis, as recorded in the amount of DNA fragments released to the cytosol from the fresh nuclei, was also recorded when the microsomal membranes of endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi were incubated in the conditions with preserved intracellular transport. The maximal 20-fold increase of apoptotic activity was recorded in the incubation mixtures of ethanol-derived endoplasmic reticulum-Golgi membranes with control-derived cytosol in the presence of the ATP generating system. Results infer that the intracellular transport vesicles, generated from ethanol-modified membranes in the presence of the substrates that are available in the cytosol of the control hepatocytes, activate the apoptotic activity in the in vitro system. This interpretation is supported by the results of analysis of the clathrin-coated transport vesicles that, in contrast to nonclathrin transport vesicles, contain a sizable accumulation of ceramides that are known to induce apoptosis.

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