Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a morbid condition whereby ischemic peripheral muscle causes pain and tissue breakdown. Interestingly, PAD risk factors, e.g. diabetes mellitus, cause endothelial dysfunction secondary to decreased nitric oxide (NO) levels, which could explain treatment failures. Previously, we demonstrated 670nm light (R/NIR) increased NO from nitrosyl-heme stores, therefore we hypothesized R/NIR can stimulate vasodilation in healthy and diabetic blood vessels. Vasodilation was tested by ex vivo pressure myography in wild type C57Bl/6, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) knockout, and db/db mice (10 mW/cm2 for 5min with 10 min dark period). NOS inhibition with N-Nitroarginine methyl ester (L-NAME) or the NO scavenger Carboxy-PTIO (c-PTIO) tested the specificity of NO production. 4,5-Diaminofluorescein diacetate (DAF-2) measured NO in human dermal microvascular endothelial cells (HMVEC-d). R/NIR significantly increased vasodilation in wild type and NOS inhibited groups, however R/NIR dilation was totally abolished with c-PTIO and blood vessel denudation. Interestingly, the bath solution from intact R/NIR stimulated vessels could dilate light naïve vessels in a NO dependent manner. Characterization of the bath identified a NO generating substance suggestive of S-nitrosothiols or non heme iron nitrosyl complexes. Consistent with the finding of an endothelial source of NO, intracellular NO increased with R/NIR in HMVEC-d treated with and without L-NAME (1mM), yet c-PTIO (100μm) reduced NO production. R/NIR significantly dilated db/db blood vessels. In conclusion, R/NIR stimulates vasodilation by release of NO bound substances from the endothelium. In a diabetes model of endothelial dysfunction, R/NIR restores vasodilation, which lends the potential for new treatments for diabetic vascular disease.

The objective of this study was to examine the impact of chronic hyperoxic exposure (95% O2 for 48 h) on intact bovine pulmonary arterial endothelial cell redox metabolism of 2,3,5,6-tetramethyl-1,4-benzoquinone (duroquinone, DQ). DQ or durohydroquinone (DQH2) was added to normoxic or hyperoxia-exposed cells in air-saturated medium, and the medium DQ concentrations were measured over 30 min. DQ disappeared from the medium when DQ was added and appeared in the medium when DQH2 was added, such that after approximately 15 min, a steady-state DQ concentration was approached that was approximately 4.5 times lower for the hyperoxia-exposed than the normoxic cells. The rate of DQ-mediated reduction of the cell membrane-impermeant redox indicator, potassium ferricyanide [Fe(CN)6(3-)], was also approximately twofold faster for the hyperoxia-exposed cells. Inhibitor studies and mathematical modeling suggested that in both normoxic and hyperoxia-exposed cells, NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) was the dominant DQ reductase and mitochondrial electron transport complex III the dominant DQH2 oxidase involved and that the difference between the net effects of the cells on DQ redox status could be attributed primarily to a twofold increase in the maximum NQO1-mediated DQ reduction rate in the hyperoxia-exposed cells. Accordingly, NQO1 protein and total activity were higher in hyperoxia-exposed than normoxic cell cytosolic fractions. One outcome for hyperoxia-exposed cells was enhanced protection from cell-mediated DQ redox cycling. This study demonstrates that exposure to chronic hyperoxia increases the capacity of pulmonary arterial endothelial cells to reduce DQ to DQH2 via a hyperoxia-induced increase in NQO1 protein and total activity.

No abstract

The goal was to determine whether endogenous cytosolic NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) preferentially utilizes NADPH or NADH in intact pulmonary arterial endothelial cells in culture. The approach was to manipulate the redox status of the NADH/NAD+ and NADPH/NADP+ redox pairs in the cytosolic compartment using treatment conditions targeting glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway alone or with lactate, and to evaluate the impact on the intact cell NQO1 activity. Cells were treated with 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG), iodoacetate (IOA) or epiandrosterone (EPI) in the absence or presence of lactate, NQO1 activity was measured in intact cells using duroquinone (DQ) as the electron acceptor and pyridine nucleotide redox status was measured in total cell KOH extracts by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). 2-DG decreased the NADH/NAD+ and NADPH/NADP+ ratios, by 59% and 50%, respectively, and intact cell NQO1 activity by 74%; lactate restored NADH/NAD+, but not NADPH/NADP+ or NQO1 activity. IOA decreased NADH/NAD+ but had no detectable effect on NADPH/NADP+ or NQO1 activity. EPI decreased NQO1 activity by 67%, and while EPI alone did not alter NADPH/NADP+ or NADH/NAD+, when the NQO1 electron acceptor DQ was also present, NADPH/NADP+ decreased by 84% with no impact on NADH/NAD+. DQ alone also decreased NADPH/NADP+ but not NADH/NAD+. The results suggest that NQO1 activity is more tightly coupled with the redox status of the NADPH/NADP+ than NADH/NAD+ redox pair, and that NADPH is the endogenous NQO1 electron donor. Parallel studies of pulmonary endothelial transplasma membrane electron transport (TPMET), another redox process that draws reducing equivalents from the cytosol, confirmed previous observations of a correlation with the NADH/NAD+ ratio.

Mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with various forms of lung injury and disease that also involve alterations in pulmonary endothelial permeability, but the relationship, if any, between the two is not well understood. This question was addressed by perfusing the isolated intact rat lung with a buffered physiological saline solution in the absence or presence of the mitochondrial complex I inhibitor rotenone (20 uM). As compared to control, rotenone depressed whole lung tissue ATP from 5.66 ± 0.46 (SEM) to 2.34 ± 0.15 (SEM) μmol·gram−1 dry lung, with concomitant increases in the ADP:ATP and AMP:ATP ratios. Rotenone also increased lung perfusate lactate (from 12.36 ± 1.64 (SEM) to 38.62 ± 3.14 μmol·15 min−1 perfusion·gm−1 dry lung) and the lactate:pyruvate ratio, but had no detectable impact on lung tissue GSH:GSSG redox status. The amphipathic quinone, coenzyme Q1 (CoQ1; 50 μM) mitigated the impact of rotenone on the adenine nucleotide balance, wherein mitigation was blocked by NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) or mitochondrial complex III inhibitors. In separate studies, rotenone increased the pulmonary vascular endothelial filtration coefficient (Kf) from 0.043 ± 0.010 (SEM) to 0.156 ± 0.037 (SEM) ml·min−1·cm H2O−1·gm−1 dry lung weight, and CoQ1 protected against the effect of rotenone on Kf. A second complex I inhibitor, piericidin A, qualitatively reproduced the impact of rotenone on Kf and the lactate/pyruvate ratio. Taken together, the observations imply that pulmonary endothelial barrier integrity depends on mitochondrial bioenergetics as reflected in lung tissue ATP levels and that compensatory activation of whole lung glycolysis cannot protect against pulmonary endothelial hyperpermeability in response to mitochondrial blockade. The study further suggests that low molecular weight amphipathic quinones may have therapeutic utility in protecting lung barrier function in mitochondrial insufficiency.