Antioxidant enzyme expression in rat lungs during hyperoxia

To understand the molecular mechanisms that upregulate the activities of pulmonary antioxidant enzymes in adult rats during exposure to 85% oxygen, the relative contents of corresponding mRNA in normal and hyperoxic lungs were determined. Hyperoxic exposure drastically induced the expression of lung manganese-containing superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) mRNA. Maximal induction of MnSOD mRNA occurred at days 3 and 5 of exposure to hyperoxia, reaching a 600 and a 340% increase over the levels of air-exposed rats, respectively. In addition, hyperoxia induced lung mRNA for glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, glutathione peroxidase, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, alpha-tubulin, and gamma-actin to different extents at various days of exposure. Hyperoxia had little or no effect on the levels of mRNA for copper/zinc-containing superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD), catalase, heat shock protein (HSP70), and creatine kinase. Nuclear run-on experiments showed that the transcriptional rate of the MnSOD gene is enhanced in hyperoxic rat lungs by similar to 400% at day 3 of exposure compared with that of controls. The specific activities of CuZnSOD and MnSOD in these lung samples per unit of lung protein or DNA were also determined. The activity of CuZnSOD in hyperoxic lungs was found to be unchanged compared with controls, except a 20% decrease at day 7 of exposure when standardized against protein content of lung homogenate. Changes of CuZnSOD activity were more dramatic in hyperoxic lungs (a 40% increase at days 3, 5, 7, and 14 of exposure) when enzyme activity was normalized using lung DNA content. Surprisingly, no proportional increase of lung MnSOD enzyme activity was observed at days 3 and 5 of oxygen exposure. The increase of MnSOD activity per unit of lung protein also did not parallel the increase in MnSOD protein content at days 5, 7, and 14 of exposure. These data suggest that, in addition to transcriptional activation, translational and/or posttranslational regulation of the MnSOD gene expression may play a critical role in controlling lung MnSOD activity on hyperoxic exposure.