Ischemia-reperfusion injury of the isolated diabetic rat heart: effect of the antioxidant stobadine.

The etiology of diabetic complications is strongly associated with increased oxidative stress. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of the potent antioxidant stobadine (STB) on global ischemia-reperfusion cardiac injury in the rat model of diabetes mellitus (DM). Diabetes was induced by multiple low doses of streptozotocin. The effect of STB was compared with that of a high dose of α-lipoic acid (ALA). All experiments were performed on isolated Langendorff-perfused hearts 10 weeks after streptozotocin administration. Diabetic hearts showed to be more resistant to ischemia-reperfusion than the control hearts, as shown by the reduced number of reperfusion dysrhythmias. The effect of the therapy with ALA (100 mg/kg i.p., 5 times a week during 8 weeks) was comparable to that of STB (25 mg/kg i.p., 5 times a week during 8 weeks) resulting in lowering the heart rate and coronary flow as well as the number of serious reperfusion dysrhythmias. Though the protective effect of STB on the reperfusion-induced dysrhythmias was comparable with that of ALA, both substances failed to enhance functional recovery of the diabetic rat heart.

Antioxidant SMe1EC2 may attenuate the disbalance of sodium homeostasis in the organism induced by higher intake of cholesterol.

The study was focused to the influence of higher intake of cholesterol on properties of the renal Na,K-ATPase, a key system in maintaining the homeostasis of sodium in the organism. Feeding for 4 weeks with cholesterol-enriched food for rats afflicted with hereditary hypertriglyceridemia by itself enhanced the activity of Na,K-ATPase, probably as a consequence of higher number of active enzyme molecules as suggested by 32 % increase of V (max) value. This may be hypothesized as a reason for the increased retention of sodium. Three-week-lasting treatment of animals kept on high cholesterol diet with antioxidant SMe1EC2 in a dose of 10 mg kg(-1) day(-1) normalized the function of renal Na,K-ATPase to the level comparable in hypertriglyceridemic rats fed with the standard diet. Therefore, our results suggest that the antioxidant SMe1EC2 in the applied dose seems to be effective in the attenuation of cholesterol-induced retention of sodium. Treatment for 3 weeks with Fenofibrate in a dose of 100 mg kg(-1) day(-1) reversed the function of renal Na,K-ATPase only slightly.

Delineating diseases by IMS-MS profiling of serum N-linked glycans.

Altered branching and aberrant expression of N-linked glycans is known to be associated with disease states such as cancer. However, the complexity of determining such variations hinders the development of specific glycomic approaches for assessing disease states. Here, we examine a combination of ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) and mass spectrometry (MS) measurements, with principal component analysis (PCA) for characterizing serum N-linked glycans from 81 individuals: 28 with cirrhosis of the liver, 25 with liver cancer, and 28 apparently healthy. Supervised PCA of combined ion-mobility profiles for several, to as many as 10 different mass-to-charge ratios for glycan ions, improves the delineation of diseased states. This extends an earlier study [J. Proteome Res.2008, 7, 1109-1117] of isomers associated with a single glycan (S(1)H(5)N(4)) in which PCA analysis of the IMS profiles appeared to differentiate the liver cancer group from the other samples. Although performed on a limited number of test subjects, the combination of IMS-MS for different combinations of ions and multivariate PCA analysis shows promise for characterizing disease states.

Protection of the vascular endothelium in experimental situations.

One of the factors proposed as mediators of vascular dysfunction observed in diabetes is the increased generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). This provides support for the use of antioxidants as early and appropriate pharmacological intervention in the development of late diabetic complications. In streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes in rats we observed endothelial dysfuction manifested by reduced endothelium-dependent response to acetylcholine of the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) and aorta, as well as by increased endothelaemia. Changes in endothelium-dependent relaxation of SMA were induced by injury of the nitric oxide radical (·NO)-signalling pathway since the endothelium-derived hyperpolarising factor (EDHF)-component of relaxation was not impaired by diabetes. The endothelial dysfunction was accompanied by decreased ·NO bioavailabity as a consequence of reduced activity of eNOS rather than its reduced expression. The results obtained using the chemiluminiscence method (CL) argue for increased oxidative stress and increased ROS production. The enzyme NAD(P)H-oxidase problably participates in ROS production in the later phases of diabetes. Oxidative stress was also connected with decreased levels of reduced glutathione (GSH) in the early phase of diabetes. After 10 weeks of diabetes, adaptational mechanisms probably took place because GSH levels were not changed compared to controls. Antioxidant properties of SMe1EC2 found in vitro were partly confirmed in vivo. Administration of SMe1EC2 protected endothelial function. It significantly decreased endothelaemia of diabetic rats and improved endothelium-dependent relaxation of arteries, slightly decreased ROS-production and increased bioavailability of ·NO in the aorta. Further studies with higher doses of SMe1EC2 may clarify the mechanism of its endothelium-protective effect in vivo.

Toxicological aspects of the use of phenolic compounds in disease prevention.

The consumption of a diet low in fat and enhanced by fruits and vegetables, especially rich in phenolic compounds, may reduce risks of many civilization diseases. The use of traditional medicines, mainly derived from plant sources, has become an attractive segment in the management of many lifestyle diseases. Concerning the application of dietary supplements (based on phenolic compounds) in common practice, the ongoing debate over possible adverse effects of certain nutrients and dosage levels is of great importance. Since dietary supplements are not classified as drugs, their potential toxicities and interactions have not been thoroughly evaluated. First, this review will introduce phenolic compounds as natural substances beneficial for human health. Second, the potential dual mode of action of flavonoids will be outlined. Third, potential deleterious impacts of phenolic compounds utilization will be discussed: pro-oxidant and estrogenic activities, cancerogenic potential, cytotoxic effects, apoptosis induction and flavonoid-drug interaction. Finally, future trends within the research field will be indicated.

Neuropathy in a rat model of mild diabetes induced by multiple low doses of streptozotocin: effects of the antioxidant stobadine in comparison with a high-dose alpha-lipoic acid treatment.

Hyperglycaemia-induced oxidative stress makes an important contribution to the aetiology of diabetic neuropathy. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of the antioxidant stobadine (STB) in comparison with a treatment by a high-dose of alpha-lipoic acid (ALA), on the neurological consequences of chronic hyperglycaemia in an animal model of diabetes in Wistar rats (16 weeks old), made diabetic by streptozotocin (STZ 3 x 20 mg i.v.). Neuropathy was evaluated electrophysiologically by measuring motor nerve conduction velocity (NCV) in the 4th and 8th week in vivo and motor NCV and resistance to ischaemic conduction failure (RICF) of the sciatic nerve in the 10th week of the experiment in vitro. The therapy with ALA (100 mg/kg i.p., 5 times a week) and STB (25 mg/kg i.p., 5 times a week) had a significant effect on NCV in vivo in the 8th week of the experiment and no effect in the 10th week in vitro. The RICF elevated in diabetic animals was significantly modified by ALA. The effect of the antioxidant STB on NCV was comparable with that of ALA, while RICF was affected only by ALA. We conclude that treatment with appropriate antioxidants might partially prevent nerve dysfunction in diabetic rats.

Identification of N-glycan serum markers associated with hepatocellular carcinoma from mass spectrometry data.

Glycocylation represents the most complex and widespread post-translational modifications in human proteins. The variation of glycosylation is closely related to oncogenic transformation. Therefore, profiling of glycans detached from proteins is a promising strategy to identify biomarkers for cancer detection. This study identified candidate glycan biomarkers associated with hepatocellular carcinoma by mass spectrometry. Specifically, mass spectrometry data were analyzed with a peak selection procedure which incorporates multiple random sampling strategies with recursive feature selection based on support vector machines. Ten peak sets were obtained from different combinations of samples. Seven peaks were shared by each of the 10 peaksets, in which 7-12 peaks were selected, indicating 58-100% of peaks were shared by the 10 peaksets. Support vector machines and hierarchical clustering method were used to evaluate the performance of the peaksets. The predictive performance of the seven peaks was further evaluated by using 19 newly generated MALDI-TOF spectra. Glycan structures for four glycans of the seven peaks were determined. Literature search indicated that the structures of the four glycans could be found in some cancer-related glycoproteins. The method of this study is significant in deriving consistent, accurate, and biological significant glycan marker candidates for hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosis.

Different experimental approaches in modelling cataractogenesis: An overview of selenite-induced nuclear cataract in rats.

Cataract, the opacification of eye lens, is the leading cause of blindness worldwide. At present, the only remedy is surgical removal of the cataractous lens and substitution with a lens made of synthetic polymers. However, besides significant costs of operation and possible complications, an artificial lens just does not have the overall optical qualities of a normal one. Hence it remains a significant public health problem, and biochemical solutions or pharmacological interventions that will maintain the transparency of the lens are highly required. Naturally, there is a persistent demand for suitable biological models. The ocular lens would appear to be an ideal organ for maintaining culture conditions because of lacking blood vessels and nerves. The lens in vivo obtains its nutrients and eliminates waste products via diffusion with the surrounding fluids. Lens opacification observed in vivo can be mimicked in vitro by addition of the cataractogenic agent sodium selenite (Na(2)SeO(3)) to the culture medium. Moreover, since an overdose of sodium selenite induces also cataract in young rats, it became an extremely rapid and convenient model of nuclear cataract in vivo. The main focus of this review will be on selenium (Se) and its salt sodium selenite, their toxicological characteristics and safety data in relevance of modelling cataractogenesis, either under in vivo or in vitro conditions. The studies revealing the mechanisms of lens opacification induced by selenite are highlighted, the representatives from screening for potential anti-cataract agents are listed.

Pycnogenol improves left ventricular function in streptozotocin-induced diabetic cardiomyopathy in rats.

We studied whether Pycnogenol (PYC) may attenuate the development of experimental streptozotocin-induced diabetic cardiomyopathy in rat. In addition, we aimed to study whether PYC affects cardiac oxidative stress and the protein expression of reactive oxygen species (ROS)-producing molecules (gp91(phox)-containing NADPH oxidase and NO-signalling proteins). Experimental diabetes mellitus was manifested by hyperglycaemia and impaired cardiac function estimated using left ventricular catheterisation in vivo. PYC lowered fasting plasma glucose and normalized basal cardiac function. Excessive oxidative stress in streptozotocin (STZ) hearts, evidenced by 40% increase (P < 0.05) of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) concentration, was associated with increased expression of gp91(phox) (by 75%, P < 0.05), iNOS (by 40%, P < 0.05) and alpha-tubulin (by 49%, P < 0.05), but unchanged expression of eNOS and its alosteric regulators, as compared to CON. PYC failed to affect these expression abnormalities. Our study shows that PYC corrects diabetic cardiac dysfunction, probably by its metabolic and direct radical scavenging activity without affecting the molecular maladaptations of ROS-producing enzymes and cytoskeletal components.

Detection of hepatocellular carcinoma using glycomic analysis.

PURPOSE: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents an increasing health problem in the United States. Serum alpha-fetoprotein, the currently used clinical marker, is elevated in only approximately 60% of HCC patients; therefore, the identification of additional markers is expected to have significant public health impact. The objective of our study was to quantitatively assess N-glycans originating from serum glycoproteins as alternative markers for the detection of HCC. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We used matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry for quantitative comparison of 83 N-glycans in serum samples of 202 participants (73 HCC cases, 77 age- and gender-matched cancer-free controls, and 52 patients with chronic liver disease). N-glycans were enzymatically released from serum glycoproteins and permethylated before mass spectrometric quantification. RESULTS: The abundance of 57 N-glycans was significantly altered in HCC patients compared with controls. The sensitivity of six individual glycans evaluated for separation of HCC cases from population controls ranged from 73% to 90%, and the specificity ranged from 36% to 91%. A combination of three selected N-glycans was sufficient to classify HCC with 90% sensitivity and 89% specificity in an independent validation set of patients with chronic liver disease. The three N-glycans remained associated with HCC after adjustment for chronic viral infection and other known covariates, whereas the other glycans increased significantly at earlier stages of the progression of chronic viral infection to HCC. CONCLUSION: A set of three identified N-glycans is sufficient for the detection of HCC with 90% prediction accuracy in a population with high rates of hepatitis C viral infection. Further evaluation of a wider clinical utility of these candidate markers is warranted.

Breast cancer diagnosis and prognosis through quantitative measurements of serum glycan profiles.

BACKGROUND: Glycosylated proteins play important roles in cell-to-cell interactions, immunosurveillance, and a variety of receptor-mediated and specific protein functions through a highly complex repertoire of glycan structures. Aberrant glycosylation has been implicated in cancer for many years. METHODS: We performed specific MALDI mass spectrometry (MS)-based glycomic profile analyses of permethylated glycans in sera from breast cancer patients (12, stage I; 11, stage II; 9, stage III; and 50, stage IV) along with sera from 27 disease-free women. The serum glycoproteins were enzymatically deglycosylated, and the released glycans were purified and quantitatively permethylated before their MALDI-MS analyses. We applied various statistical analysis tools, including ANOVA and principal component analysis, to evaluate the MS profiles. RESULTS: Two statistical procedures implicated several sialylated and fucosylated N-glycan structures as highly probable biomarkers. Quantitative changes according to a cancer stage resulted when we categorized the glycans according to molecular size, number of oligomer branches, and abundance of sugar residues. Increases in sialylation and fucosylation of glycan structures appeared to be indicative of cancer progression. Different statistical evaluations confirmed independently that changes in the relative intensities of 8 N-glycans are characteristic of breast cancer (P < 0.001), whereas other glycan structures might contribute additionally to distinctions in the statistically recognizable patterns (different stages). CONCLUSIONS: MS-based N-glycomic profiling of serum-derived constituents appears promising as a highly sensitive and informative approach for staging the progression of cancer.

Analysis of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry data for discovery of peptide and glycan biomarkers of hepatocellular carcinoma.

This paper presents computational methods to analyze MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry data for quantitative comparison of peptides and glycans in serum. The methods are applied to identify candidate biomarkers in serum samples of 203 participants from Egypt; 73 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cases, 52 patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) consisting of cirrhosis and fibrosis cases, and 78 population controls. Two complementary sample preparation methods were applied prior to generating mass spectra: (1) low molecular weight (LMW) enrichment of each serum sample was carried out for MALDI-TOF quantification of peptides, and (2) glycans were enzymatically released from proteins in each serum sample and permethylated for MALDI-TOF quantification of glycans. A peak selection algorithm was applied to identify the most useful peptide and glycan peaks for accurate detection of HCC cases from high-risk population of patients with CLD. In addition to global peaks selected by the whole population based approach, where identically labeled patients are treated as a single group, subgroup-specific peaks were identified by searching for peaks that are differentially abundant in a subgroup of patients only. The peak selection process was preceded by peak screening, where we eliminated peaks that have significant association with covariates such as age, gender, and viral infection based on the peptide and glycan spectra from population controls. The performance of the selected peptide and glycan peaks was evaluated in terms of their ability in detecting HCC cases from patients with CLD in a blinded validation set and through the cross-validation method. Finally, we investigated the possibility of using both peptides and glycans in a panel to enhance the diagnostic capability of these candidate markers. Further evaluation is needed to examine the potential clinical utility of the candidate peptide and glycan markers identified in this study.

Analysis of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry data for detection of glycan biomarkers.

We present a computational framework for analysis of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry data to enable quantitative comparison of glycans in serum. The proposed framework enables a systematic selection of glycan structures that have good generalization capability in distinguishing subjects from two pre-labeled groups. We applied the proposed method for a biomarker discovery study that involves 203 participants from Cairo, Egypt; 73 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cases, 52 patients with chronic liver disease (CLD), and 78 healthy individuals. Glycans were enzymatically released from proteins in serum and permethylated prior to mass spectrometric quantification. A subset of the participants (35 HCC and 35 CLD cases) was used as a training set to select global and subgroup-specific peaks. The peak selection step is preceded by peak screening, where we eliminate peaks that seem to have association with covariates such as age, gender, and viral infection based on the 78 spectra from healthy individuals. To ensure that the global peaks have good generalization capability, we subjected the entire spectral preprocessing and peak selection step to a cross-validation; a randomly selected subset of the training set was used for spectral preprocessing and peak selection in multiple runs with resubstitution. In addition to global peak identification method, we describe a new approach that allows the selection of subgroup-specific glycans by searching for glycans that display differential abundance in a subgroup of patients only. The performance of the global and subgroup-specific peaks is evaluated via a blinded independent set that comprises of 38 HCC and 17 CLD cases. Further evaluation of the potential clinical utility of the selected global and subgroup-specific candidate markers is needed.

Integrated peptide and glycan biomarker discovery using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.

Quantitative comparison of peptides and glycans in serum is conducted using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) to identify biomarkers. A peak selection algorithm is developed to identify a panel of integrated peptide and glycan peaks to distinguish hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cases from high-risk population of patients with chronic liver disease (CLD). Candidate peptide and glycan markers selected frequently in multiple runs of the algorithm are presented. The performance of these markers is evaluated in terms of their ability to distinguish HCC cases from patients with CLD in a blinded validation set.

Comparative glycomic mapping through quantitative permethylation and stable-isotope labeling.

Comparative glycan quantification has thus far been a challenging task due to the lack of sensitive and reproducible analytical techniques. We introduce here a combination of quantitative permethylation and isotope labeling of glycans as an approach (C-GlycoMAP) allowing precise comparison between different samples in a single MALDI-MS analysis. Samples are either methylated or deuteriomethylated prior to their mixing and mass spectrometric acquisitions. Comparative analyses are based on the ratio of the two isotopically distinct forms of the same glycan structure, thus allowing a direct absolute evaluation of the intensities of the two forms originating from two different biological samples (e.g., control and diseased). The direct comparison between the two forms eliminates a MALDI-MS low m/z bias commonly associated with this technique. These comparative analyses are highly reliable when the intensity ratios of the two forms lie between 0.125 and 6, an overall reproducibility better than 30% (RSD). The value of C-GlycoMAP is demonstrated here for N-glycans derived from human blood serum collected from a healthy individual and a breast cancer patient as well as for O-glycans derived from normal and cancer cell extracts.

Alterations in the serum glycome due to metastatic prostate cancer.

Glycomic profiles derived from human blood sera of 10 healthy males were compared to those from 24 prostate cancer patients. The profiles were acquired using MALDI-MS of permethylated N-glycans released from 10-microL sample aliquots. Quantitative permethylation was attained using solid-phase permethylation. Principal component analysis of the glycomic profiles revealed significant differences among the two sets, allowing their distinct clustering. The first principal component distinguished the 24 prostate cancer patients from the healthy individuals. It was determined that fucosylation of glycan structures is generally higher in cancer samples (ANOVA test p-value of 0.0006). Although more than 50 N-glycan structures were determined, 12 glycan structures, of which six were fucosylated, were significantly different between the two sample sets. Significant differences were confirmed through two independent statistical tests (ANOVA and ROC analyses). Ten of these structures had significantly higher relative intensities in the case of the cancer samples, while the other two were less abundant in the cancer samples. All 12 structures were statistically significant, as suggested by their very low ANOVA scores (<0.001) and ROC analysis, with area under the curve values close to 1 or 0. Accordingly, these structures can be considered as cancer-specific glycans and potential prostate cancer biomarkers. Therefore, serum glycomic profiling appears worthy of further investigation to define its role in cancer early detection and prognostication.

Electrophoretic analysis of oxidatively modified eye lens proteins in vitro: implications for diabetic cataract.

Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) profiles of eye lens proteins showed that both progression of diabetic cataract in rats in vivo and precipitation of soluble eye lens proteins stressed by free radicals in vitro were accompanied by significant protein cross-linking. There was a noticeable contribution of disulfide bridges to protein cross-linking in diabetic eye lens in vivo. In contrast, under conditions in vitro, when eye lens proteins were exposed to hydroxyl or peroxyl radicals, we showed that the participation of reducible disulfide linkages in the formation of high molecular mass products was markedly lower. These in vivo--in vitro differences indicate that the generally accepted role of reactive oxygen species in diabetic cataractogenesis may be overestimated in connection with the processes of protein cross-linking.

Effect of the pyridoindole antioxidant stobadine on development of experimental diabetic cataract and on lens protein oxidation in rats: comparison with vitamin E and BHT.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation with the pyridoindole antioxidant stobadine on the development of diabetic cataract in rats. The findings were compared with the effect of the natural antioxidant vitamin E and the well known phenolic synthetic antioxidant butylated hydroxytoluene. METHODS: Streptozotocin induced diabetic male Wistars rats were fed for 18 weeks a standard diet or a diet supplemented with stobadine (0.05% w/w), vitamin E (0.1% w/w), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT, 0.4% w/w), or a mixture of stobadine (0.05% w/w) and vitamin E (0.1% w/w). The progress of cataract was monitored biweekly by ophthalmoscopic inspection. Plasma glucose and body weight were recorded regularly. At the end of the experiment, the content of free sulfhydryl and carbonyl was determined in total lens proteins and in the stobadine group plasma levels of malondialdehyde were also measured. RESULTS: Long term treatment of diabetic animals with stobadine (STB), vitamin E, or BHT led to a marked delay in the development of advanced stages of cataract. At the end of the experiment, the visual cataract score was significantly decreased in the diabetic groups treated with stobadine or BHT, while vitamin E had no significant effect. Unexpectedly, combined treatment with STB+vitamin E advanced the progression of the higher stages of cataract, though without affecting the overall visual cataract score. Neither of the antioxidants exerted an effect on the glycemic state or body weight of the animals. Biochemical analyses of eye lens proteins showed significant diminution of sulfhydryl groups and elevation of carbonyl groups in diabetic animals in comparison to healthy controls. Dietary supplementation with any of the antioxidants studied did not influence the levels of these biomarkers significantly. Nevertheless, in diabetic animals, stobadine supplementation significantly attenuated plasma levels of malondialdehyde, an index of systemic oxidative damage. CONCLUSIONS: The results are in accordance with the postulated pro-oxidant role of chronic hyperglycemia, however, the direct oxidative free radical damage of eye lens proteins does not seem to be the key mechanism effective in the development of diabetic cataract. Sugar cataractogenesis appears to be a complex process, in which multiple mechanisms may be involved, including consequences of the overt oxidative stress in diabetes (e.g., protein modifying potential of toxic aldehydes generated as byproducts of carbohydrate autoxidation and lipid peroxidation). The ability of stobadine to attenuate lipoxidation reactions in diabetes may account, at least partly, for its observed anticataract action. Mechanisms involving reduction of mitochondrial damage by stobadine are also discussed.