Refine
Has Fulltext
- yes (2)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (2)
Document Type
- Doctoral Thesis (2)
Language
- English (2) (remove)
Keywords
- Stickstoffoxidsynthase (2) (remove)
During the last few years an increasing number of physiological processes in plants have been shown to be regulated by NO. NO plays important roles in growth and development, plant disease resistance, abiotic stress, and in above and underground plant organs. In recent years several enzymatic pathways and few non-enzymatic pathways were proposed for nitric oxide production in plants. The major goal of this work was to quantify NO production by plants and especially by roots, and to identify the enzymes responsible for NO production. As a major method, NO production by roots was followed through on-line measurement of NO emission into the gas phase by chemiluminescence (= direct chemiluminescence), and also by indirect chemiluminescence where trace amounts of oxidized products like NO2- and NO3- can be easily measured. Plants used were tobacco wild-type (N. tabacum cv Xanthi or cv Gatersleben), NR-free mutants grown on ammonium in order to prevent NR induction, plants grown on tungstate to inhibit synthesis of functional MoCo-enzymes, and a NO-overproducing nitrite reductase (NiR)-deficient transformant as well as barley, rice and pea. Induction of a hypersensitive response (HR) in tobacco leaves was achieved by using avirulent Pseudomonas syringae pv phaseolicola. At oxygen concentrations of <1%, even completely nitrate reductase (NR)-free root tissues reduced added nitrite to NO, indicating that in roots, NR was not the only source for nitrite-dependent NO formation. By contrast, NR-free leaf slices were not able to reduce nitrite to NO. Root NO formation was blocked by inhibitors of mitochondrial electron transport (Myxothiazol and SHAM), whereas NO formation by NR containing leaf slices was insensitive to the inhibitors. Consistent with that, mitochondria purified from roots, but not those from leaves, reduced nitrite to NO at the expense of NADH. The inhibitor studies suggest that, in root mitochondria, both terminal oxidases participate in NO formation, and they also suggest that even in NR-containing roots, a large part of the reduction of nitrite to NO was catalysed by mitochondria, and less by NR. The differential capacity of root and leaf mitochondria to reduce nitrite to NO appears to be common among higher plants, since it was observed with Arabidopsis, barley, pea, and tobacco. Nitrite and NADH consumption by mitochondria were also measured. Anaerobic, nitrite-dependent NO emission was exclusively associated with the membrane fraction, without participation of matrix components. It was also examined whether root mitochondria and mitochondrial membranes produce nitric oxide (NO) exclusively by reduction of nitrite or also via a nitric oxide synthase (NOS),- and to what extent direct NO measurements could be falsified by NO oxidation. In addition to chemiluminescence, Diaminofluoresceins (DAF) were used as an NO indicators for comparison. In air, mitochondria apparently produced no nitrite-dependent NO, and no NOS activity was detected by direct or indirect chemiluminescence. In contrast, with DAF-2 and DAR-4M an L-arginine-dependent fluorescence increase took place. However, the response of this apparent NOS activity to inhibitors, substrates and cofactors was untypical when compared with commercial iNOS and is considered an artefact. With iNOS, about 2/3 of the NO were oxidized to (nitrite + nitrate). Mitochondria also appear to consume NO without increasing oxidation to (nitrite+ nitrate). We therefore assume formation of NO to a volatile intermediate (eventually N2O3). It was recently shown that the hypersensitive response (HR) of tobacco triggered by the fungal elicitor cryptogein occurred independent of the presence or absence of nitrate reductase (NR). One conclusion was that NR-dependent NO formation played no role in the HR. Here we present evidence that the described scenario may be specific for cryptogein. Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola was infiltrated into tobacco leaves from WT plant and from the NiR-deficient NO-overproducing clone 271, grown either on nitrate or ammonium. Lesion development as well as bacterial growth and sugar concentrations in leaves and in the leaf apoplast was monitored. Lesion development was positively and bacterial growth was negatively correlated with nitrate nutrition and eventually with NO formation. Bacterial growth was positively correlated with ammonium nutrition and apoplastic sugar concentrations. Total (free and conjugated) SA content were always drastically increased by bacterial infection, but there was no clear correlation with NO production. In the presence of cryptogein, Pseudomonas growth was drastically reduced. This shows that the assumed interdependence of bacterial growth, NO production and the HR is complex and not unifactorial.
Several epidemiological studies found that hypertensive patients have an increased risk to develop kidney cancer. Hyperaldosteronism frequently results in arterial hypertension and contributes to the development and progression of kidney injury, with reactive oxygen species (ROS) playing an important role. ROS are thought to be associated with many pathological conditions such as cancer and other disorders, like cardiovascular complications , which often go along with hypertension. The aim of the present work was to investigate whether the effects of elevated aldosterone concentrations might be involved in the increased cancer incidence of hypertensive individuals. First, the potential capacity of aldosterone to induce oxidative stress and DNA damage was investigated in vitro and in vivo. In LLC-PK1 porcine kidney cells and MDCK canine kidney cells the significant formation of ROS, and especially of superoxide (O2˙ˉ) was assessed. With two genotoxicity tests, the comet assay and the micronucleus frequency test, the DNA damaging potential of aldosterone was quantified. In both genotoxicity tests a dose-dependent increase in aldosterone-induced structural DNA damage was observed. Oxidative stress and DNA damage were prevented by antioxidants, suggesting ROS as a major cause of DNA damage. Furthermore, the oxidatively modified DNA lesion 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2´-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG), was found to be significantly elevated. In kidneys of rats with desoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)/salt-induced hypertension, which is a model of severe mineralocorticoid-dependent hypertension, elevated levels of ROS and superoxide were found, compared to kidneys of sham rats. Also DNA strand breaks, measured with the comet assay and double strand breaks, visualized with antibodies against the double strand break-marker gamma-H2AX were significantly elevated in kidneys of DOCA/salt-treated rats. In addition, significantly increased amounts of 8-oxodG were detected. Proliferation of kidney cells was found to be increased, which theoretically enables the DNA damage to manifest itself as mutations, since the cells divide. Second, the effects of aldosterone on the activation of transcription factors and signaling pathways were investigated. A significant activation of the potentially protective transcription factor Nrf2 was observed in LLC-PK1 cells. This activation was triggered by an increase of ROS or reactive nitrogen species (RNS). In response to oxidative stress, glutathione synthesis and detoxifying enzymes, such as the subunits of the glutathione-cysteine-ligase or heme oxygenase 1 were rapidly induced after 4 h. Nevertheless, after 24 h a decrease of glutathione levels was observed. Since ROS levels were still high after 24 h, but Nrf2 activation decreased, this adaptive survival response seems to be transient and quickly saturated and overwhelmed by ROS/RNS. Furthermore, Nrf2 activation was not sufficient to protect cells against oxidative DNA damage, because the amounts of double strand breaks and 8-oxodG lesions steadily rose up to 48 h of aldosterone treatment. The second transcription factor that was time- and dose-dependently activated by aldosterone in LLC-PK1 and MDCK cells was NF-kappaB. Furthermore, a significant cytosolic and nuclear activation of ERK was detected. Aldosterone induced the phosphorylation of the transcription factors CREB, STAT1 and STAT3 through ERK. Third, the underlying mechanisms of oxidant production, DNA damage and activation of transcription factors and signaling pathways were studied. Aldosterone exclusively acted via the MR, which was proven by the MR antagonists eplerenone, spironolactone and BR-4628, whereas the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) antagonist mifepristone did not show any effect. Furthermore, aldosterone needed cytosolic calcium to exert its negative effects. Calcium from intracellular stores and the influx of calcium across the plasma membrane was involved in aldosterone signaling. The calcium signal activated on the one hand, the prooxidant enzyme complex NAD(P)H oxidase through PKC, which subsequently caused the generation of O2˙ˉ. On the other hand, nitric oxide synthase (NOS) was activated, which in turn produced NO. NO and O2˙ˉ can react to the highly reactive species ONOO- that can damage the DNA more severely than the less reactive O2˙ˉ. In the short term, the activation of transcription factors and signaling pathways could be a protective response against aldosterone-induced oxidative stress and DNA damage. However, a long-term NF-B and ERK/CREB/STAT activation by persistently high aldosterone levels could unfold the prosurvival activity of NF-kappaB and ERK/CREB/STAT in aldosterone-exposed cells. DNA damage caused by increased ROS might become persistent and could be inherited to daughter cells, probably initiating carcinogenesis. If these events also occur in patients with hyperaldosteronism, these results suggest that aldosterone could be involved in the increased cancer incidence of hypertensive individuals.