Synthetic catalytic scavengers of reactive oxygen species (ROS) may have broad clinical applicability. In previous papers, two salen-manganese complexes, EUK-8 and EUK-134, had superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase activities and prevented ROS-associated tissue injury. This study describes two series of salen-manganese complexes, comparing catalytic ROS scavenging properties and cytoprotective activities. The compounds vary widely in ability to scavenge hydrogen peroxide, with this activity most influenced by salen ring alkoxy substitution and aromatic bridge modifications. In contrast, all compounds show comparable SOD activities. The most active alkoxy-substituted catalase mimetics protected cultured cells from hydrogen peroxide, and a subset of these were also neuroprotective in a rodent stroke model. Thus, structural modification of the prototype EUK-8 yields compounds with enhanced catalase activity and, in turn, biological effectiveness. This supports the concept that salen-manganese complexes represent a class of SOD and, in particular, catalase mimetics potentially useful against ROS-associated diseases.

Transplantation of allogeneic organs and tissues represents a lifesaving procedure for a variety of patients affected with end-stage diseases. Although current immunosuppressive therapy prevents early acute rejection, it is associated with nephrotoxicity and increased risks for infection and neoplasia. This stresses the need for selective immune-based therapies relying on manipulation of lymphocyte recognition of donor antigens. The passenger leukocyte theory states that allograft rejection is initiated by recipient T cells recognizing donor major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules displayed on graft leukocytes migrating to the host’s lymphoid organs. We revisited this concept in mice transplanted with allogeneic skin, heart, or islet grafts using imaging flow cytometry. We observed no donor cells in the lymph nodes and spleen of skin-grafted mice, but we found high numbers of recipient cells displaying allogeneic MHC molecules (cross-dressed) acquired from donor microvesicles (exosomes). After heart or islet transplantation, we observed few donor leukocytes (100 per million) but large numbers of recipient cells cross-dressed with donor MHC (>90,000 per million). Last, we showed that purified allogeneic exosomes induced proinflammatory alloimmune responses by T cells in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, these results suggest that recipient antigen-presenting cells cross-dressed with donor MHC rather than passenger leukocytes trigger T cell responses after allotransplantation.

Subtractive library construction and differential screening were used to identify a cDNA for a cell type-specific immediate early gene induced in rat PC12 pheochromocytoma cells.

The present study tested the effects of EUK-134, a synthetic superoxide dismutase͞catalase mimetic, on several indices of oxidative stress and neuropathology produced in the rat limbic system as a result of seizure activity elicited by systemic kainic acid (KA) administration. Pretreatment of rats with EUK-134 did not modify the latency for or duration of KA-induced seizure activity. It did produce a highly significant reduction in increased protein nitration, activator protein-1-and NF-B-binding activity, and spectrin proteolysis as well as in neuronal damage resulting from seizure activity in limbic structures. These results support the hypothesis that kainate-induced excitotoxicity is caused, at least in part, by the action of reactive oxygen species. Furthermore, they suggest that synthetic superoxide dismutase͞catalase mimetics such as EUK-134 might be used to prevent excitotoxic neuronal injury.Various mechanisms have been proposed to account for the pathological manifestations observed after systemic administration of the excitotoxin kainic acid (KA). Because drugs blocking seizure activity prevent most of the neuronal damage resulting from KA injection (1, 2), it is clear that the pathology is not a direct consequence of the activation of KA or ␣-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-isoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA) receptors, but rather is the result of events triggered by seizure activity. Excessive production of oxygen-free radicals and other radical species often has been proposed to play an important role in neuronal pathology resulting from excitotoxic insults (3-8). It generally is admitted that KA administration results in the activation of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in vulnerable neuronal populations (9, 10), an event that has been shown to cause the formation of superoxide radicals (11,12). Moreover, we reported previously that levels of lipid peroxidation and protein oxidation, two parameters of oxidative stress, were increased significantly in hippocampus and piriform cortex at 8 and 16 h after KAinduced seizure activity in adult rats (13). We also showed that the DNA-binding activity of two transcription factors, namely activator protein-1 (AP-1) and NF-B, generally considered to be markers of cellular insults (14, 15), was increased in these structures under these conditions (16). However, a causal relationship between oxidative stress and neuronal damage after systemic kainate injection has not been established unambiguously, because many agents used as antioxidants also interfere with seizure activity. In addition, because excitotoxicity also has been shown to be reduced by caspase inhibitors (17), oxidative stress could be a late consequence of the events triggered by seizure activity and leading to neuronal death.Salen-manganese complexes are low-molecular-weight synthetic compounds that exhibit both superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase activities, catalytically eliminating both superoxide and hydrogen peroxide, respectively (18 -20). Compared with proteinaceous antioxidant en...