Radiometric assessment of hexose monophosphate shunt capacity in erythrocytes of rhinoceroses.

OBJECTIVES: To measure metabolic rates of the hexose monophosphate shunt (HMPS) in erythrocytes of rhinoceroses, and to test the hypothesis that low concentrations of endogenous ATP in erythrocytes impair HMPS capacity, thereby increasing susceptibility to oxidant-induced hemolysis. ANIMALS: 13 black and 3 white rhinoceroses, free-ranging in several regions of southern Africa, and 1 Sumatran rhinoceros in US captivity. PROCEDURE: HMPS fluxes were measured in rhinoceros erythrocytes with carbon-labeled glucose in the presence and absence of known HMPS activators. RESULTS: Compared with values for human erythrocytes, mean basal state HMPS fluxes were appreciably lower (22 to 46%) in all 3 rhinoceros species studied. Shunt activators increased HMPS rates approximately 5-fold over basal rates in rhinoceros erythrocytes, compared with increases in humans of 10-fold with ascorbate and 15-fold with methylene blue. Stimulated HMPS rates in human erythrocytes were quantitatively 5- to 10-times greater than those observed in rhinoceros erythrocytes. Overall HMPS catabolic rates were completely independent of intracellular ATP concentrations. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: HMPS glycolytic and recycling rates and responses to activators are inherently low in erythrocytes from 3 species of rhinoceros, likely contributing to (but not solely responsible for) the high susceptibility of black rhinoceroses to oxidant-induced hemolysis. Slow erythrocyte HMPS capacities were independent of intracellular ATP concentrations, invalidating a current hypothesis regarding the pathogenesis of hemolytic anemia in captive black rhinoceroses. Limitations in HMPS capacities emphasize the importance of protecting rhinoceroses from exposure to drugs, chemicals, toxins, foodstuffs, and other conditions known to increase production of oxidizing metabolites, reactive oxygen species, and free radicals.

Role of excessive maternal iron in the pathogenesis of congenital leukoencephalomalacia in captive black rhinoceroses (Diceros bicornis).

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the possibility that excessive maternal iron (overload) may contribute to development of congenital leukoencephalomalacia in captive black rhinoceroses. SAMPLE POPULATION: Tissue specimens and serum samples from 18 rhinoceroses in 2 kindreds harboring 4 (possibly 5) affected female calves. PROCEDURE: Fresh and archival sera and necropsy tissue specimens were evaluated to determine the nature and extent of iron overload in captive and wild black rhinoceroses as well as other rhinoceros species. RESULTS: Quantitative serum and tissue assays of iron and iron analytes, corroborated by histopathologic findings, indicated that these kindreds carried the greatest body burdens of iron yet found among captive black rhinoceroses. Fourteen of 18 rhinoceroses had the highest serum ferritin concentrations measured among 64 black rhinoceroses in captivity in the United States. Dams of affected calves had serum ferritin concentrations 2 orders of magnitude higher than clinically normal humans, equids, or free-ranging rhinoceroses. A neonatal serum sample from 1 affected female calf had a high ferritin concentration (approx 100-fold increase), but a male sibling of another affected female did not, suggesting a possible sex disparity in fetal response to maternal iron overload. Morphologic hallmarks of hemochromatosis were prominent in dams and grandams of affected calves. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Excessive maternal iron may affect female fetuses more than males, possibly inducing leukoencephalomalacia by catalyzing production of highly toxic hydroxyl free radicals during crucial periods of in utero development. Reduction of maternal iron overload may decrease the probability of developing leukoencephalomalacia and some other disorders commonly affecting rhinoceroses in captivity.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia in a juvenile southern black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis minor).

A 21-mo-old female southern black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis minor) developed acute upper respiratory dyspnea in association with lymphadenopathy and marked immature lymphocytosis. A diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia was reached on the basis of the morphologic and cytochemical characteristics of peripheral lymphoblasts. Antineoplastic chemotherapy included administration of cytarabine, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and doxorubicin, with clinical remission achieved 19 days after initiation of treatment. The rhinoceros died, however, of congestive heart failure, presumably secondary to doxorubicin cardiotoxicity and a particular sensitivity of rhinoceros myocardial tissue to free hydroxyl radicals. The pharmacologic effects of any therapeutic agent need to be carefully considered before use in the black rhinoceros, especially within the context of the unique physiology of this species.

Anthracycline cardiotoxicity in a black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis): evidence for impaired antioxidant capacity compounded by iron overload.

Two weeks before dying of congestive heart failure, a juvenile black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis minor) received a single low dose of doxorubicin as part of combination chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Diffuse hemosiderosis was present at necropsy in a pattern indicative of dietary iron overload, but unique iron-positive degenerative lesions were found in isolated myocardiocytes. Serum analyses revealed hyperferremia, 87% transferrin saturation, and 5- to 10-fold elevations in ferritin concentration, reflecting markedly increased tissue iron stores. Since both toxic and therapeutic effects of anthracyclines are mediated by formation of reactive free radicals via iron-catalyzed reactions, these observations suggest that iron overload may have enhanced myocardial susceptibility to cardiotoxic effects of doxorubicin. Impairments in other myocardial antioxidant defenses, such as deficiencies in catalase and glutathione S-transferase that are known to exist in rhinoceros erythrocytes, may have been underlying factors contributing to an inherent sensitivity of rhinoceros tissues to oxidant-induced injury.

Endogenous natural killer enhancing factor-B increases cellular resistance to oxidative stresses.

Natural killer-enhancing factor (NKEF) was identified and cloned on the basis of its ability to increase NK cytotoxicity. Two genes, NKEF-A and -B, encode NKEF proteins and sequence analysis presented suggests that each belongs to a highly conserved family of antioxidants. To examine the antioxidant potential of NKEF, we transfected the coding region of NKEF-B cDNA into the human endothelial cell line ECV304. The stable transfectant, B/1, was found to overexpress NKEF-B gene transcript and protein. We subjected B/1 to oxidative stress by either culturing them with glucose oxidase (GO), which continuously generates hydrogen peroxide, or by direct addition of hydrogen peroxide. We found that B/1 cells were more resistant than control cell lines. Resistance to hydrogen peroxide was originally thought to be mediated mainly by catalase and the glutathione cycle. Therefore, we used inhibitors to block the two pathways and found that B/1 cells were more resistant to oxidative stress than control cells when we used inhibitors to preblock either pathway. We also examined the cellular inflammatory responses to oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) by measuring monocyte adhesion to endothelial cells in vitro and found that B/1 cells were resistant to such responses. Lastly, we found that B/1 cells were more resistant to a novel chemotherapeutic agent CT-2584, which appears to kill tumor cells by stimulating production of reactive oxygen intermediates in mitochondria. These results demonstrate that the NKEF-B is an antioxidant that protects cells from oxidative stress, chemotherapy agents, and inflammation-induced monocyte adhesion. Furthermore, its expression may mediate cellular responses to proinflammatory molecules.

Acute episodic hemolysis in the African black rhinoceros as an analogue of human glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency.

Sudden episodes of massive hemolysis have become the most common cause of death among captive black rhinoceroses, and there is evidence that they occur in the wild as well. We have observed radically unique enzyme and metabolite profiles in normal rhinoceros erythrocytes compared to humans and other mammals, including marked deficiencies of intracellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP), catalase, adenosine deaminase, and other enzymes involved in glycolysis, glutathione cycling, and nucleotide metabolism. Minimal concentrations of ATP appear to impair effective acceleration of hexosemonophosphate shunt activity in response to oxidants by restricting substrate generation at the hexokinase step. Antioxidant defenses are further compromised by catalase deficiency, which may be a general characteristic of rhinoceros erythrocytes, perhaps related to the common occurrence of severe mucocutaneous ulcerative disease. It is proposed that erythrocyte ATP deficiency in rhinoceroses may be an evolutionary adaptation conferring selective advantage against common hemic parasites, comparable to the role of human glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G-6-PD) deficiency in falciparum malaria.

AMP deaminase as a cell-age marker in transient erythroblastopenia of childhood and its role in the adenylate economy of erythrocytes.

Erythrocytes from 11 patients with presumptive diagnoses of transient erythroblastopenia of childhood were evaluated retrospectively (six) or prospectively (five) for a possible relationship between erythrocyte adenosine 5'-monophosphate aminohydrolase, adenylic acid deaminase (AMP deaminase) activity and intracellular concentrations of adenine nucleotides. Older red blood cell (RBC) cohorts in these patients consistently exhibited significantly decreased activities of AMP deaminase (approximately 5% to 70% of normal control mean) in association with increased concentrations (up to threefold) of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and total adenine nucleotides. We postulate that the latter is a direct consequence of the former, since diminishing AMP deaminase activity in aging cells should reduce the drain on the adenine nucleotide pool imposed by irreversible deamination of AMP to inosine 5'-monophosphate. Consistent reductions in AMP deaminase activity indicate that this enzyme should also serve as a reliable marker of mean RBC age useful in diagnostic confirmation of transient erythroblastopenia. The observed increases in ATP and total adenine nucleotides in older RBCs require a reevaluation of the traditional view that age-related losses of these compounds mediate the ultimate demise of senescent erythrocytes. Similar alterations in the balance of degradative and salvage pathways in RBC nucleotide metabolism may also underlie certain cases of so-called "high ATP syndrome."

Inhibition of adenylate kinase by P1,P5-di(adenosine 5') pentaphosphate in assays of erythrocyte enzyme activities requiring adenine nucleotides.

P1,P5-di(adenosine 5')pentaphosphate (Ap5A) is an excellent inhibitor of human hemolysate adenylate kinase at concentrations near 2 microM and above. At ten times this concentration and in hemolysate enzyme assays under conditions described in this paper it appears not to alter reaction data in the case of hexokinase, phosphofructokinase, and phosphoglycerokinase. In the pyruvate kinase assay, very modest reductions in activity are noted, and kinetics with phosphoenolpyruvate, adenosine diphosphate (ADP), and uridine diphosphate (UDP) are unaltered.

Pyruvate kinase Greensboro. A four-generation study of a high K0.5s (phosphoenolpyruvate) variant.

The proband with lifelong hemolytic anemia has a high K0.5s phosphoenolypyruvate (PEP) erythrocyte pyruvate kinase (PK) variant substantially but incompletely normalized by the allosteric modifier fructose-1,6-diphosphate (F-1,6-P2) with conversion of sigmoidal to hyperbolic kinetics. Heterozygotes in four generations express qualitatively identical but less severely abnormal kinetics and lack overt hemolysis. Kinetic abnormalities are closely mimicked by sulfhydryl modification of normal PK. Three distinct clinical and metabolic phenotypes characterize the proband and two sisters: variant PK and hemolytic anemia, variant PK without clinical manifestations or hemolysis, and complete normality. Their mother, whose red cell PK is entirely normal except for a questionably slightly low Vmax, is postulated to express the gene products of nonidentical alleles, one encoding a product with mildly less favorable catalytic characteristics. At low PEP concentrations, the proband and heterozygotes for the PK mutant express only a very small fraction of normal PK activity despite apparent inheritance of one normal allele in the latter. Evidence suggests that disproportionately lowered PK activity may be a property of a heterotetrameric PK. Illusory abnormalities in nucleotide specificity are artifacts of diminished substrate affinity characterizing the mutant PK.

Modification of erythrocyte enzyme activities by persulfides and methanethiol: possible regulatory role.

Sulfhydryl modification of 22 human erythrocyte enzymes was achieved by exposing intact erythrocytes, hemolysates, and partially purified enzymes to persulfides (RSSH) generated nonenzymatically from cystine in the presence of pyridoxal phosphate and mercaptopyruvate, which donates its sulfur to suitable acceptors with the mediation of the carrier enzyme, mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase (EC 2.8.1.2). The inhibition pattern was qualitatively similar for persulfides and that previously reported by us for the methylthio-group donor, methyl methanethiosulfonate. Thirteen activities were inhibited, and 9 were minimally or not at all affected. Pyruvate kinase was similarly modified by all systems in terms of phosphoenolpyruvate kinetics, thermostability, and interaction with the negative effector ATP. Partial-to-complete reversal of inhibition was documented in a subset of activities inhibited by mercaptopyruvate upon 30-min incubation with 1 mM dithiothreitol. A possible physiologic role for methylthio groups and for persulfides is discussed.

Acute intravascular hemolysis in the black rhinoceros: erythrocyte enzymes and metabolic intermediates.

Enzymes of aerobic and anaerobic glycolysis, glutathione cycling, and nucleotide metabolism were assayed on erythrocytes from 7 healthy rhinoceroses, 2 rhinoceroses during periods of intravascular hemolysis, and 1 rhinoceros without clinical signs of illness, which was the mother of 3 offspring with intravascular hemolytic syndrome. Measurements also were made of erythrocyte concentrations of glycolytic intermediates, adenine nucleotides, and glutathione. Although comparison of results for healthy and affected rhinoceroses did not identify an enzyme abnormality as a cause for the hemolytic syndrome, the data provided information regarding the metabolic characteristics of erythrocytes from healthy rhinoceroses.

Mechanisms of adenosine 5'-monophosphate catabolism in human erythrocytes.

Uncertainties regarding the role of pyrimidine nucleotidase (PyrNase) in AMP catabolism were resolved by studies of erythrocytes from normal controls, controls with young mean cell ages, and patients with hereditary hemolytic anemia due to severe deficiency of PyrNase. Hemolysates from the latter exhibited undiminished capacity to dephosphorylate AMP over a broad range of pH, indicating that PyrNase was not directly involved. In each subject group, the rates of AMP dephosphorylation between pH 5.1 and 8.3 were indistinguishable from those of IMP, suggesting a potential role for AMP-deaminase, an erythrocyte enzyme that was stimulated by coformycin at pH 7.2. Quantitative analysis of catabolites in incubated hemolysates confirmed that AMP degradation preferentially occurred via deamination to IMP with subsequent dephosphorylation by another erythrocyte nucleotidase isozyme, deoxyribonucleotidase. Both AMP-deaminase and deoxyribonucleotidase have acidic pH optima with minimal activities at physiologic pH, suggesting that this pathway of AMP catabolism could accelerate depletion of the adenine nucleotide pool and thereby mediate the demise of senescent erythrocytes sequestered in the spleen.

Familial nonspherocytic hemolytic anemia in poodles.

Nonspherocytic hemolytic anemia, characterized by marked reticulocytosis, hepatosplenomegaly, hemosiderosis of reticuloendothelial organs and bone marrow myelofibrosis, and osteosclerosis, was diagnosed in 5 related Poodles. The unremitting anemia was clinically evident by 1 year of age, and was fatal as early as 3 years of age. Despite intense diagnostic endeavors including RBC fragility studies, RBC enzyme assays, and hemoglobin electrophoresis, the cause of this nonspherocytic hemolytic anemia remains to be determined.

Adenine ribo- and deoxyribonucleotide metabolism in human erythrocytes, B- and T-lymphocyte cell lines, and monocyte-macrophages.

Ordinarily packaged in DNA, adenine deoxyribonucleotides are preferentially concentrated in erythrocyte and lymphocyte cytosol in adenosine deaminase (adenosine aminohydrolase, EC 3.5.4.4) deficiency. A spectrum of cytosol enzyme activities are defined in terms of reaction velocities, K0.5s, and nucleotide partition after incubation with ribo- and deoxyribonucleotides. AMP and dAMP were dephosphorylated, but only AMP was deaminated in vitro. Although nucleotidase activity is much stronger in lymphocytes, AMP deaminase was the dominant degradative reaction in all erythrocyte and lymphocyte lysates under the conditions specified. For most cytosolic enzymes, ribonucleotides were preferred cofactors, implying that dADP and dATP often may be bystanders at metabolic events. The adenylate kinase-mediated partition of approximately equimolar ribo- and deoxyribonucleotide substrates yielded a very large preponderance of AMP in the monophosphate compartment, the monophosphates alone being directly vulnerable to degradative loss. The adenylate kinase(s) of lymphocytes differed strikingly from those of erythrocytes in reaction velocities with nucleotide cofactors, K0.5s, and in susceptibility to substrate inhibition.

Hemolytic anemias and erythrocyte enzymopathies.

The human erythrocyte generates high-energy adenosine triphosphate by anaerobic glycolysis and cycles oxidized and reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate by the aerobic pentose phosphate shunt pathway. Certain enzymopathies of the pentose phosphate shunt are associated with hemolysis resulting from oxidative denaturation of hemoglobin. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, an X-chromosome-linked disorder, is the prototype of these diseases and is genetically and clinically polymorphic. Six enzymopathies of anaerobic glycolysis cause hemolytic anemia; lactate dehydrogenase deficiency does not. In 2,3-diphosphoglycerate mutase deficiency, 2,3-diphosphoglycerate is greatly reduced and asymptomatic polycythemia is noted. Pyrimidine-5'-nucleotidase deficiency, an enzymopathy of nucleotide metabolism, is characterized by intracellular accumulations of pyrimidine-containing nucleotides, marked basophilic stippling on the stained blood film, splenomegaly, and hemolysis. Lead inhibits the nucleotidase and an identical syndrome occurs during severe lead poisoning. Hemolysis also accompanies an unusual enzymopathy characterized by a 40- to 70-fold increase (not decrease) in adenosine deaminase activity.

Pyruvate kinase isozyme (PK-Greenville) with defective allosteric activation by fructose-1,6-diphosphate: the role of F-1,6-P modulation in normal erythrocyte metabolism.

A child with chronic hemolytic anemia since birth was found to have erythrocyte pyruvate kinase (PK) in a highly unusual form relative to other mutant isozymes when characterized by International Committee for Standardization in Hematology criteria. Most properties of the partially purified isozyme (designated PK-Greenville) were altered minimally, if at all, except for nearly total insensitivity to allosteric activation by fructose-1,6-diphosphate (F-1,6-P). One parent appeared to be heterozygous for a null gene and the other for an allele governing production of the mutant isozyme. Apparent restriction of the molecular defect to ineffective activation kinetics suggests that the F-1,6-P binding site on erythrocyte PK is functionally as well as physically allosteric. The magnitude of the metabolic block at the PK step and the clinical severity indicate that allosteric modulation by F-1,6-P is a crucial property of PK in normal erythrocyte metabolism.