Are quinones producers or scavengers of superoxide ion in cells?

• Published in: Archives of biochemistry and biophysics Vol. 281; no. 2; pp. 245 - 250
• Main Authors: Afanas'ev, Igor B., Korkina, Ludmila G., Suslova, Tatjana B., Soodaeva, Svetlana K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Diego, CA Elsevier Inc 01.09.1990; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animals; Benzoquinones; Biological and medical sciences; Cell metabolism, cell oxidation; Cell physiology; Cell-Free System; Cytochrome c Group - metabolism; Doxorubicin - pharmacology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Luminescent Measurements; Macrophages - drug effects; Macrophages - metabolism; Microsomes, Liver - drug effects; Microsomes, Liver - metabolism; Molecular and cellular biology; Nitroblue Tetrazolium; Oxidation-Reduction; Quinones - pharmacology; Rats; Superoxides - metabolism; Vitamin K - pharmacology; Xanthine Oxidase - metabolism; Xanthines - metabolism; Rat; Liver; Rodentia; Oxidase; Electron transfer; Benzoquinone; Biosynthesis; Chemiluminescence; Microsome; Radical scavenger; Menaquinone; Vertebrata; Hyperoxides; Reduction; Mammalia; Reaction mechanism; Macrophage; Ultraviolet visible spectrometry
• ISSN: 0003-9861; 1096-0384
• DOI: 10.1016/0003-9861(90)90439-6

The effects of quinones (benzoquinone, menadione, and doxorubicin) on the superoxide production in cell free systems (xanthine oxidase and rat liver microsomes) and of polycationic electrolyte- and latex-stimulated rat peritoneal macrophages have been studied. Contradictory results were obtained in cell free systems when two traditional assays for detection of superoxide ion, the cytochrome c reduction and the lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence (CL), were used: all quinones inhibited the lucigenin-dependent CL at sufficiently large concentrations, but they did not inhibit at all the reduction of cytochrome c. It was proposed that the cytochrome c assay gave erroneous results due to the reversibility of the interaction of semiquinones with dioxygen. The effect of quinones on the superoxide production by peritoneal macrophages was biphasic: all quinones stimulated the O 2 ⨪ formation at low concentrations and inhibited it at elevated concentrations. It was concluded that among the quinones studied, only menadione was capable of stimulating the superoxide production via a one-electron transfer mechanism in cell free systems, while the stimulatory effect of small concentrations of quinones on the O 2 ⨪ production in macrophages was possibly due to their action on the activation of NADPH oxidase.