Comparison of 5-hydroxy-2-amino valeric acid with carbonyl group content as a marker of oxidized protein in human and mouse liver tissues

Previous studies indicate that 5-hydroxy-2-amino valeric acid (HAVA) is an excellent marker of oxidized arginine and proline in purified proteins. We report here experiments testing the specificity of the HAVA assay a technique using the unpurified 100,000 x g supernatant fraction prepared from mice and human liver tissue. Results are compared to carbonyl group analysis on the same tissue samples. Mice at ages 3, 12, and 30 months were exposed to 100% oxygen. Results showed a significant increase of HAVA content in each age group. No significant changes were found in carbonyl group content. Because it has been reported that carbonyl group content increases with age, we applied the HAVA assay to reexamine this question. Using mice of 1 to 30 months of age, we failed to detect any significance difference in either HAVA or carbonyl group content. However, on using human liver samples a significant decrease from age 16 to 40 years and then an increase to 85 years of age was found for both HAVA and carbonyl groups. Liver proteins may be oxidized from hydrogen peroxide produced from the cytochrome P450 detoxification system. This possibility was supported by a significant positive correlation found between HAVA and cytochrome P450 content in 18 human individuals of different ages.