Role of hydroxyl radical in the oxidant H₂O₂-mediated Ca²⁺ release from pulmonary smooth muscle mitochondria

Abstract

We sought to investigate the mechanism(s) by which the oxidant H₂O₂ stimulates Ca²⁺ release from mitochondria of bovine pulmonary vascular smooth muscle tissue and to test the hypothesis that hydroxyl radical is involved in this phenomenon. Treatment of the smooth muscle tissue with 1 mM H₂O₂ dramatically stimulated hydroxyl radical generation as measured by methane (CH₄) production by GLC using dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) as the substrate. Pretreatment of the mitochondria with the hydroxyl radical scavanger dimethylthiourea (DMTU) prevented the increase in CH₄ production caused by H₂O₂. In the absence of EGTA, H₂O₂ caused stimulation of Ca²⁺ release from mitochondria occurred with a lag time of about 4 min. Addition of EGTA to Ca²⁺ loaded mitochondria resulted an immediate loss of Ca²⁺ and that has been found to be augmented by H₂O₂. The release of Ca₂₊ by H₂O₂ did not appear to occur with concommitant increase in sucrose entry into, K⁺ release from, and swelling of mitochondria when the Ca²⁺ cycling was prevented by EGTA. These observations suggested that H₂O₂-mediated Ca²⁺ release from bovine pulmonary vascular smooth muscle tissue mitochondria occurred (i) through the involvement of hydroxyl radical; (ii) via specific pathway(s); and (iii) did not appear to happen primarily via nonspecific ‘pore’ formation.