Regulation of endothelial cell xanthine dehydrogenase xanthine oxidase gene expression by oxygen tension.

Recent studies have demonstrated that xanthine dehydrogenase/xanthine oxidase (XD/XO) activities of bovine endothelial cells (EC) are inversely regulated by O2 tensions to which the cells are exposed. We have confirmed these reports and extended the observation to a variety of cells from other sources. All EC that had detectable XD/XO activity demonstrated the greatest activity at the lowest O2 level. Bovine pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells showed XD/XO activity only under hypoxic conditions. The ratio of XO to XO+XD did not change significantly under various O2 concentrations for all cell types tested. Treatment of bovine pulmonary artery and rat epididymal fat pad EC with actinomycin D (1 microgram/ml), an inhibitor of transcription, suppressed XO and XO+XD activities in cells exposed both to 20 and 3% O2. High-dose cycloheximide (5 micrograms/ml), an inhibitor of translation, also reduced XO and XO+XD activities in these cells, whereas low-dose cycloheximide (0.5 microgram/ml) enhanced the stimulatory effect of hypoxia on XO+XD activity. We developed a digoxigenin-labeled probe that recognizes and hybridizes to rat XD cDNA and used it to examine the effect of O2 concentration on XD/XO mRNA expression of rat epididymal fat pad EC. XD/XO mRNA concentration was increased in cells exposed to hypoxia and decreased in cells exposed to hyperoxia compared with normoxic cells. The increase in mRNA concentration resulting from exposure to hypoxia was enhanced by cycloheximide. There was no change in XD/XO mRNA stability in cells exposed to hypoxia compared with normoxia. We conclude that the regulation of XD/XO by oxygen tension most likely occurs at the transcriptional level.

Inhibition of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cell growth by hypoxanthine, xanthine, and uric acid.

We have previously reported that medium conditioned by hypoxic pulmonary artery endothelial cells (ECCM) contains a factor of small molecular weight that inhibits the growth of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (SMC). We postulated that this factor might be a breakdown product of ATP and, therefore, measured the levels of hypoxanthine/xanthine (HX/X) and uric acid (UA) in ECCM and cell lysates from endothelial cells (EC) exposed to hypoxia and normoxia. Although hypoxic and normoxic cell lysates contained no UA and an equal amount of HX/X (2.9 +/- 0.3 and 2.9 +/- 0.5 microM, respectively), there was a 5-fold increase in the amount of HX/X present in hypoxic compared with normoxic ECCM (3.4 +/- 0.3 versus 0.6 +/- 0.4 microM, respectively; P less than 0.001) but no difference in UA levels (5 +/- 2 versus 5 +/- 1 microM, respectively). In separate experiments, we examined the effects of exogenous HX, X, and UA (doses ranging from 0.1 to 100 microM) on the proliferation of pulmonary and aortic SMC and pulmonary artery EC. Our results indicate that HX, X, and UA inhibit the proliferation of SMC in a dose-dependent manner without causing injury to the cells. The proliferation of EC, on the other hand, was not affected by UA and was significantly inhibited by HX and X only at doses of 100 microM. In conclusion, we have found that significant amounts of HX/X accumulate in hypoxic ECCM and that HX, X, and UA inhibit the proliferation of SMC. The relevance of these findings to conditions where hypoxia prevails is discussed.

Defining the involvement of HOCl or Cl2 as enzyme-generated intermediates in chloroperoxidase-catalyzed reactions.

Peroxidatic substrates, catechol (CAT) and 2,4,6-trimethylphenol (TMP) were used as probes of thechloride dependent reactions catalyzed by chloroperoxidase (CPO). TMP is consumed only in the presence of chloride. TMP is a competitive inhibitor versus CAT, but CAT is a noncompetitive inhibitor versus TMP in chloride-dependent CPO-catalyzed peroxidation reactions. The ratio of TMP versus CAT consumed by the chloride-dependent CPO reaction in direct competition studies increases as the chloride concentration is increased from 1.0 to 400 mM. Ratios of non-enzymatic HOCl reactions under conditions otherwise similar to those of the CPO reactions are relatively insensitive to changes in chloride concentration and are experimentally indistinguishable from the values attained by the enzyme system at high chloride concentrations. Comparison of enzymatic ratios with those of the HOCl reactions indicate that the proportion of the enzymatic reaction involving a freely dissociable, enzyme-generated, oxidized halogen species varies from 10% at low chloride concentrations to essentially 100% at high chloride concentrations. All data are consistent with a mechanism in which chloride competes with CAT for binding to both CPO compound I and the CPO chlorinating intermediate (EOCl). Chloride binding to CPO compound I leads to the formation of EOCl and initiates the CPO chloride-dependent pathway. When CAT binds to either compound I or EOCl, it is directly oxidized to product. When chloride binds to EOCl, it either induces release of HOCl or reacts with EOCl to produce Cl2, which is released from the enzyme. TMP and CAT compete for reaction with the free oxidized halogen species. This is the first direct evidence for kinetically significant involvement of a free oxidized halogen species as an intermediate in any CPO-catalyzed reaction.