Direct evidence for tumor necrosis factor-induced mitochondrial reactive oxygen intermediates and their involvement in cytotoxicity. (original) (raw)

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1995 Aug 29; 92(18): 8115–8119.

Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Ghent University, Belgium.

Abstract

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is selectively cytotoxic to some types of tumor cells in vitro and exerts antitumor activity in vivo. Reactive oxygen intermediates (ROIs) have been implicated in the direct cytotoxic activity of TNF. By using confocal microscopy, flow cytometry, and the ROI-specific probe dihydrorhodamine 123, we directly demonstrate that intracellular ROIs are formed after TNF stimulation. These ROIs are observed exclusively under conditions where cells are sensitive to the cytotoxic activity of TNF, suggesting a direct link between both phenomena. ROI scavengers, such as butylated hydroxyanisole, effectively blocked the formation of free radicals and arrested the cytotoxic response, confirming that the observed ROIs are cytocidal. The mitochondrial glutathione system scavenges the major part of the produced ROIs, an activity that could be blocked by diethyl maleate; under these conditions, TNF-induced ROIs detectable by dihydrorhodamine 123 oxidation were 5- to 20-fold higher.

Full text

Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. Get a printable copy (PDF file) of the complete article (1.4M), or click on a page image below to browse page by page. Links to PubMed are also available for Selected References.

Images in this article

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.


Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences