Oxidative stress arises from an imbalance in the production and scavenging rates of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and is a key factor in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease and aging. The presence of parallel pathways and multiple intracellular compartments, each having its own ROS sources and antioxidant enzymes, complicates the determination of the most important regulatory nodes of the redox network. Here we quantified ROS dynamics within specific intracellular compartments in the cytosol and mitochondria and determined which scavenging enzymes exert the most control over antioxidant fluxes in H9c2 cardiac myoblasts. We used novel targeted viral gene transfer vectors expressing redox-sensitive GFP fused to sensor domains to measure H 2 O 2 or oxidized glutathione. Using genetic manipulation in heart-derived H9c2 cells, we explored the contribution of specific antioxidant enzymes to ROS scavenging and glutathione redox potential within each intracellular compartment. Our findings reveal that antioxidant flux is strongly dependent on mitochondrial substrate catabolism, with availability of NADPH as a major rate-controlling step. Moreover, ROS scavenging by mitochondria significantly contributes to cytoplasmic ROS handling. The findings provide fundamental information about the control of ROS scavenging by the redox network and suggest novel interventions for circumventing oxidative stress in cardiac cells.
Reactive oxygen species (ROS)2 serve as both signaling molecules and destructive agents, requiring cells to finely regulate their levels. Antioxidant enzymes catalyze ROS conversion directly via an active-site metal ion (e.g. superoxide dismutase or catalase) or through pathways involving the donation of an electron from the moiety-conserved redox couples thioredoxin and glutathione, which require continuous regeneration of the reduced species. Uncontrolled or uncontained ROS accumulation can affect numerous cell functions, including gene/protein expression, calcium handling, myofilament activation, bioenergetics, and substrate metabolism (1-4). Different ROS-generating and scavenging systems are present in distinct cellular compartments, and these may interact in complex ways that have not been well characterized.In cardiac myocytes, ROS are a byproduct of mitochondrial electron transport (5) and are also produced by extramitochondrial sources, including NADPH oxidase (1), uncoupled nitric oxide synthase (6), xanthine oxidase (7), and monoamine oxidase (8, 9). Both mitochondrial and extramitochondrial sources have been implicated in cardiac disorders including heart failure, myocardial ischemia, and arrhythmias. The dynamics and steady-state levels of ROS in local intracellular domains are determined by the rates of free radical generation and scavenging. Failure to scavenge free radicals via antioxidant fluxes can trigger a vicious cycle of dysfunction, leading to death (10). Recent studies have demonstrated that antioxidant enzymes targeted to the mitochondria, but not the cytoplasm, protect agai...