Premium
Antioxidant Effects of Nordihydroguaiaretic Acid on Oxidative Stress in Caenorhabditis elegans
Author(s) -
Korell Andrea,
Erickson Patti
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.889.12
Subject(s) - nordihydroguaiaretic acid , oxidative stress , reactive oxygen species , superoxide dismutase , green fluorescent protein , antioxidant , chemistry , caenorhabditis elegans , heat shock , hsp70 , glutathione , biochemistry , heat shock protein , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , lipoxygenase , enzyme , gene
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) that accumulate during metabolism may act as signaling molecules, or when in excess, may cause oxidative stress. ROS react with and can damage important biomolecules, leading to dysfunction and disease. Antioxidants react with ROS so that cellular components are not damaged. Nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA), a polyphenolic lignan found in the long‐lived desert plant Larrea tridentata , inhibits lipoxygenases and may reduce ROS. NDGA has been shown to have potential medicinal benefits for the cardiovascular, immune, and neurological systems, including anti‐tumorigenesis. Levels of oxidative stress in the presence or absence of NDGA can be quantified in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans using a microplate reader to measure green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression. C. elegans strains expressing GFP driven by the oxidative stress‐responsive promoters of heat shock protein (hsp‐16.2 ), superoxide dismutase ( sod‐3 ), and glutathione‐S‐transferase ( gst‐4 ) were exposed to heat and chemical oxidants to induce oxidative stress. Fluorescence was quantified using a suppressor of activated let‐60 Ras ( sur‐5 ) promoter‐GFP fusion as a negative control, since this strain showed no increased in GFP accumulation after heat shock. Preliminary data demonstrate the expected, strong increase in GFP expression for the hsp‐16.2 ‐ and sod‐3 ‐regulated strains between ten and sixteen hours after exposure to a forty five minuteheat shock at 37 o C, while the gst‐4 p::GFP strain showed a more moderate response. Ongoing experiments include NDGA treatment of C. elegans to determine if it alters oxidative stress responses.