Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

l-Cysteine in vitro can restore cellular glutathione and inhibits the expression of cell adhesion molecules in G6PD-deficient monocytes

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Amino Acids Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

l-Cysteine is a precursor of glutathione (GSH), a potent physiological antioxidant. Excess glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency in African Americans and low levels of l-cysteine diet in Hispanics can contributes to GSH deficiency and oxidative stress. Oxidative stress and monocyte adhesion was considered to be an initial event in the progression of vascular dysfunction and atherosclerosis. However, no previous study has investigated the contribution of GSH/G6PD deficiency to the expression of monocyte adhesion molecules. Using human U937 monocytes, this study examined the effect of GSH/G6PD deficiency and l-cysteine supplementation on monocyte adhesion molecules. G6PD/GSH deficiency induced by either siRNA or inhibitors (6AN/BSO, respectively) significantly (p < 0.005) increased the levels of cell adhesion molecules (ICAM-1, VCAM-1, SELL, ITGB1 and 2); NADPH oxidase (NOX), reactive oxygen species (ROS) and MCP-1 were upregulated, and decreases in levels of GSH, and nitric oxide were observed. The expression of ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 mRNA levels increased in high glucose, MCP-1 or TNF-α-treated G6PD-deficient compared to G6PD-normal cells. l-Cysteine treatment significantly (p < 0.005) increased G6PD activity and levels of GSH, and decreased NOX, ROS, and adhesion molecules. Thus, GSH/G6PD deficiency increases susceptibility to monocyte adhesion processes, whereas l-cysteine supplementation can restore cellular GSH/G6PD and attenuates NOX activity and expression of cell adhesion molecules.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

6-AN:

6-Aminonicotinamide

AA:

African American

BCA:

Bicinchoninic acid

BSO:

Buthionine sulfoximine

CAM:

Cell adhesion molecules

CCL2:

Chemokine (C–C motif) ligand 2

CVD:

Cardiovascular disease

G6PD:

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase

GAPDH:

Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase

GCLC:

Glutamate–cysteine ligase catalytic subunit

GCLM:

Glutamate–cysteine ligase modifier subunit

GSH:

Glutathione

GSS:

Glutathione synthetase

HG:

High glucose

ICAM-1:

Intercellular adhesion molecule 1

ITGB:

Integrin subunit beta

KD:

Knockdown

MCP-1:

Monocyte chemoattractant protein 1

NO:

Nitric oxide

NOX:

NADPH oxidase

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

SELL:

Selectin L

siRNA:

Short interference RNA

SLC7A11:

Solute carrier family 7 member

TNF-α:

Tumor necrosis factor-α

VCAM-1:

Vascular cell adhesion protein 1

References

  • Abid MR, Spokes KC, Shih SC, Aird WC (2007) NADPH oxidase activity selectively modulates vascular endothelial growth factor signaling pathways. J Biol Chem 282(48):35373–35385

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Achari AE, Jain SK (2016) l-Cysteine supplementation increases adiponectin synthesis and secretion, and GLUT4 and glucose utilization by upregulating disulfide bond A-like protein expression mediated by MCP-1 inhibition in 3T3-L1 adipocytes exposed to high glucose. Mol Cell Biochem 414(1–2):105–113

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Alegre-Diaz J, Herrington W, Lopez-Cervantes M, Gnatiuc L, Ramirez R, Hill M, Baigent C, McCarthy MI, Lewington S, Collins R, Whitlock G, Tapia-Conyer R, Peto R, Kuri-Morales P, Emberson JR (2016) Diabetes and cause-specific mortality in Mexico City. N Engl J Med 375(20):1961–1971

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Aronson D, Rayfield EJ (2002) How hyperglycemia promotes atherosclerosis: molecular mechanisms. Cardiovasc Diabetol 1:1

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Aune D, Norat T, Romundstad P, Vatten LJ (2013) Dairy products and the risk of type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of cohort studies. Am J Clin Nutr 98(4):1066–1083

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Benjamin EJ, Blaha MJ, Chiuve SE, Cushman M, Das SR, Deo R, de Ferranti SD, Floyd J, Fornage M, Gillespie C, Isasi CR, Jimenez MC, Jordan LC, Judd SE, Lackland D, Lichtman JH, Lisabeth L, Liu S, Longenecker CT, Mackey RH, Matsushita K, Mozaffarian D, Mussolino ME, Nasir K, Neumar RW, Palaniappan L, Pandey DK, Thiagarajan RR, Reeves MJ, Ritchey M, Rodriguez CJ, Roth GA, Rosamond WD, Sasson C, Towfighi A, Tsao CW, Turner MB, Virani SS, Voeks JH, Willey JZ, Wilkins JT, Wu JH, Alger HM, Wong SS, Muntner P (2017) Heart disease and stroke statistics—2017 update: a report from the American Heart Association. Circulation 135(10):e146–e603

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Brown-Riggs C (2015) Nutrition and health disparities: the role of dairy in improving minority health outcomes. Int J Environ Res Public Health 13(1):ijerph13010028

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Butkowski EG, Jelinek HF (2017) Hyperglycaemia, oxidative stress and inflammatory markers. Redox Rep 22(6):257–264

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cappellini MD, Fiorelli G (2008) Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency. Lancet 371(9606):64–74

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Carette C, Dubois-Laforgue D, Gautier JF, Timsit J (2011) Diabetes mellitus and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency: from one crisis to another. Diabetes Metab 37(1):79–82

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Carroll JF, Fulda KG, Chiapa AL, Rodriquez M, Phelps DR, Cardarelli KM, Vishwanatha JK, Cardarelli R (2009) Impact of race/ethnicity on the relationship between visceral fat and inflammatory biomarkers. Obesity (Silver Spring) 17(7):1420–1427

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ceriello A (2008) Cardiovascular effects of acute hyperglycaemia: pathophysiological underpinnings. Diab Vasc Dis Res 5(4):260–268

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Deo SH, Holwerda SW, Keller DM, Fadel PJ (2015) Elevated peripheral blood mononuclear cell-derived superoxide production in healthy young black men. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 308(5):H548–H552

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Diniz YS, Rocha KK, Souza GA, Galhardi CM, Ebaid GM, Rodrigues HG, Novelli Filho JL, Cicogna AC, Novelli EL (2006) Effects of N-acetylcysteine on sucrose-rich diet-induced hyperglycaemia, dyslipidemia and oxidative stress in rats. Eur J Pharmacol 543(1–3):151–157

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Estevez F, De Angelo T, Vesell ES (1994) Basal and paracetamol-depleted glutathione from human lymphocytes: ethnic variability. Acta Physiol Pharmacol Ther Latinoam 44(1–2):48–54

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Feairheller DL, Park JY, Sturgeon KM, Williamson ST, Diaz KM, Veerabhadrappa P, Brown MD (2011) Racial differences in oxidative stress and inflammation: in vitro and in vivo. Clin Transl Sci 4(1):32–37

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fontaine J, Schirmer B, Horr J (2002) Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) enables the fast and accurate prediction of essential amino acid contents. 2. Results for wheat, barley, corn, triticale, wheat bran/middlings, rice bran, and sorghum. J Agric Food Chem 50(14):3902–3911

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Franklin CC, Backos DS, Mohar I, White CC, Forman HJ, Kavanagh TJ (2009) Structure, function, and post-translational regulation of the catalytic and modifier subunits of glutamate cysteine ligase. Mol Asp Med 30(1–2):86–98

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Franze A, Ferrante MI, Fusco F, Santoro A, Sanzari E, Martini G, Ursini MV (1998) Molecular anatomy of the human glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase core promoter. FEBS Lett 437(3):313–318

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fratta Pasini A, Albiero A, Stranieri C, Cominacini M, Pasini A, Mozzini C, Vallerio P, Cominacini L, Garbin U (2012) Serum oxidative stress-induced repression of Nrf2 and GSH depletion: a mechanism potentially involved in endothelial dysfunction of young smokers. PLoS One 7(1):e30291

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gaskin RS, Estwick D, Peddi R (2001) G6PD deficiency: its role in the high prevalence of hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Ethn Dis 11(4):749–754

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Go YM, Jones DP (2005) Intracellular proatherogenic events and cell adhesion modulated by extracellular thiol/disulfide redox state. Circulation 111(22):2973–2980

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Go YM, Jones DP (2011) Cysteine/cystine redox signaling in cardiovascular disease. Free Radic Biol Med 50(4):495–509

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Golden SH, Brown A, Cauley JA, Chin MH, Gary-Webb TL, Kim C, Sosa JA, Sumner AE, Anton B (2012) Health disparities in endocrine disorders: biological, clinical, and nonclinical factors—an Endocrine Society scientific statement. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 97(9):E1579–E1639

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Golias C, Tsoutsi E, Matziridis A, Makridis P, Batistatou A, Charalabopoulos K (2007) Review. Leukocyte and endothelial cell adhesion molecules in inflammation focusing on inflammatory heart disease. In Vivo 21(5):757–769

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Griffith OW (1982) Mechanism of action, metabolism, and toxicity of buthionine sulfoximine and its higher homologs, potent inhibitors of glutathione synthesis. J Biol Chem 257(22):13704–13712

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gulvady AA, Brown RC, Bell JA (2013) Nutritional comparison of oats and other commonly consumed whole grains. In: Chu Y (ed) Oats Nutrition and Technology, Wiley, pp 71–93

  • Gumbiner BM (1996) Cell adhesion: the molecular basis of tissue architecture and morphogenesis. Cell 84(3):345–357

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hackler LR (1985) Cereal proteins in human nutrition. In: Lásztity R, Hidvégi M (eds) Amino Acid Composition and Biological Value of Cereal Proteins. Springer, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Hillis GS, Flapan AD (1998) Cell adhesion molecules in cardiovascular disease: a clinical perspective. Heart 79(5):429–431

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ho HY, Cheng ML, Lu FJ, Chou YH, Stern A, Liang CM, Chiu DT (2000) Enhanced oxidative stress and accelerated cellular senescence in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD)-deficient human fibroblasts. Free Radic Biol Med 29(2):156–169

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Iyer SS, Accardi CJ, Ziegler TR, Blanco RA, Ritzenthaler JD, Rojas M, Roman J, Jones DP (2009) Cysteine redox potential determines pro-inflammatory IL-1beta levels. PLoS One 4(3):e5017

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jain SK, Palmer M (1996) Effect of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency on reduced and oxidized glutathione and lipid peroxide levels in the blood of African-Americans. Clin Chim Acta 253(1–2):181–183

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jain SK, Velusamy T, Croad JL, Rains JL, Bull R (2009) l-Cysteine supplementation lowers blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin, CRP, MCP-1, and oxidative stress and inhibits NF-kappaB activation in the livers of Zucker diabetic rats. Free Radic Biol Med 46(12):1633–1638

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jain SK, Manna P, Micinski D, Lieblong BJ, Kahlon G, Morehead L, Hoeldtke R, Bass PF 3rd, Levine SN (2013) In African American type 2 diabetic patients, is vitamin D deficiency associated with lower blood levels of hydrogen sulfide and cyclic adenosine monophosphate, and elevated oxidative stress? Antioxid Redox Signal 18(10):1154–1158

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jain SK, Micinski D, Huning L, Kahlon G, Bass PF, Levine SN (2014) Vitamin D and l-cysteine levels correlate positively with GSH and negatively with insulin resistance levels in the blood of type 2 diabetic patients. Eur J Clin Nutr 68(10):1148–1153

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jain SK, Kahlon G, Bass P, Levine SN, Warden C (2015) Can l-cysteine and vitamin D rescue vitamin D and vitamin D binding protein levels in blood plasma of African American type 2 diabetic patients? Antioxid Redox Signal 23(8):688–693

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jain SK, Kanikarla-Marie P, Warden C, Micinski D (2016) l-Cysteine supplementation upregulates glutathione (GSH) and vitamin D binding protein (VDBP) in hepatocytes cultured in high glucose and in vivo in liver, and increases blood levels of GSH, VDBP, and 25-hydroxy-vitamin D in Zucker diabetic fatty rats. Mol Nutr Food Res 60(5):1090–1098

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kalinowski L, Dobrucki IT, Malinski T (2004) Race-specific differences in endothelial function: predisposition of African Americans to vascular diseases. Circulation 109(21):2511–2517

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koehler P, Wieser H (2013) Chemistry of cereal grains. In: Gobbetti M, Gänzle M (eds) Handbook on sourdough biotechnology. Springer, USA, pp 1–45

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohler E, Barrach H, Neubert D (1970) Inhibition of NADP dependent oxidoreductases by the 6-aminonicotinamide analogue of NADP. FEBS Lett 6(3):225–228

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar P, Maurya PK (2013) l-Cysteine efflux in erythrocytes as a function of human age: correlation with reduced glutathione and total anti-oxidant potential. Rejuvenation Res 16(3):179–184

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Leopold JA, Cap A, Scribner AW, Stanton RC, Loscalzo J (2001) Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency promotes endothelial oxidant stress and decreases endothelial nitric oxide bioavailability. FASEB J 15(10):1771–1773

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Manea A, Tanase LI, Raicu M, Simionescu M (2010) Transcriptional regulation of NADPH oxidase isoforms, Nox1 and Nox4, by nuclear factor-kappaB in human aortic smooth muscle cells. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 11(396):901–907

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mari M, Morales A, Colell A, Garcia-Ruiz C, Fernandez-Checa JC (2009) Mitochondrial glutathione, a key survival antioxidant. Antioxid Redox Signal 11(11):2685–2700

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Martin J, Collot-Teixeira S, McGregor L, McGregor JL (2007) The dialogue between endothelial cells and monocytes/macrophages in vascular syndromes. Curr Pharm Des 13(17):1751–1759

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Martinovic I, Abegunewardene N, Seul M, Vosseler M, Horstick G, Buerke M, Darius H, Lindemann S (2005) Elevated monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 serum levels in patients at risk for coronary artery disease. Circ J 69(12):1484–1489

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mestas J, Ley K (2008) Monocyte-endothelial cell interactions in the development of atherosclerosis. Trends Cardiovasc Med 18(6):228–232

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mimura J, Itoh K (2015) Role of Nrf2 in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Free Radic Biol Med 88(Pt B):221–232

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Morris AA, Zhao L, Patel RS, Jones DP, Ahmed Y, Stoyanova N, Gibbons GH, Vaccarino V, Din-Dzietham R, Quyyumi AA (2012) Differences in systemic oxidative stress based on race and the metabolic syndrome: the Morehouse and Emory Team up to Eliminate Health Disparities (META-Health) study. Metab Syndr Relat Disord 10(4):252–259

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Muller WA (2014) How endothelial cells regulate transmigration of leukocytes in the inflammatory response. Am J Pathol 184(4):886–896

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nkhoma ET, Poole C, Vannappagari V, Hall SA, Beutler E (2009) The global prevalence of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Blood Cells Mol Dis 42(3):267–278

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nobrega-Pereira S, Fernandez-Marcos PJ, Brioche T, Gomez-Cabrera MC, Salvador-Pascual A, Flores JM, Vina J, Serrano M (2016) G6PD protects from oxidative damage and improves healthspan in mice. Nat Commun 7:10894

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pinna A, Contini EL, Carru C, Solinas G (2013) Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and diabetes mellitus with severe retinal complications in a Sardinian population, Italy. Int J Med Sci 10(13):1907–1913

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rawat DK, Hecker P, Watanabe M, Chettimada S, Levy RJ, Okada T, Edwards JG, Gupte SA (2012) Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and NADPH redox regulates cardiac myocyte l-type calcium channel activity and myocardial contractile function. PLoS One 7(10):e45365

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Reliene R, Schiestl RH (2006) Glutathione depletion by buthionine sulfoximine induces DNA deletions in mice. Carcinogenesis 27(2):240–244

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rubinstein R, Genaro AM, Motta A, Cremaschi G, Wald MR (2008) Impaired immune responses in streptozotocin-induced type I diabetes in mice. Involvement of high glucose. Clin Exp Immunol 154(2):235–246

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ruoslahti E, Engvall E (1997) Integrins and vascular extracellular matrix assembly. J Clin Invest 100(11 Suppl):S53–S56

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Satia JA (2009) Diet-related disparities: understanding the problem and accelerating solutions. J Am Diet Assoc 109(4):610–615

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Schmittgen TD, Livak KJ (2008) Analyzing real-time PCR data by the comparative C(T) method. Nat Protoc 3(6):1101–1108

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Spolarics Z, Siddiqi M, Siegel JH, Garcia ZC, Stein DS, Ong H, Livingston DH, Denny T, Deitch EA (2001) Increased incidence of sepsis and altered monocyte functions in severely injured type A- glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase-deficient African American trauma patients. Crit Care Med 29(4):728–736

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stark J (2015) Oxidative stress and atherosclerosis. Orv Hetil 156(28):1115–1119

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tiwari BK, Pandey KB, Abidi AB, Rizvi SI (2013) Markers of oxidative stress during diabetes mellitus. J Biomark 2013:378790

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Villalpando S, de la Cruz V, Rojas R, Shamah-Levy T, Avila MA, Gaona B, Rebollar R, Hernandez L (2010) Prevalence and distribution of type 2 diabetes mellitus in Mexican adult population: a probabilistic survey. Salud Publica Mex 52(Suppl 1):S19–S26

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yin J, Ren W, Yang G, Duan J, Huang X, Fang R, Li C, Li T, Yin Y, Hou Y, Kim SW, Wu G (2016) l-Cysteine metabolism and its nutritional implications. Mol Nutr Food Res 60(1):134–146

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yoshimura T (2018) The chemokine MCP-1 (CCL2) in the host interaction with cancer: a foe or ally? Cell Mol Immunol. https://doi.org/10.1038/cmi.2017.135

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors are supported by grants from the Malcolm W. Feist Cardiovascular Research Fellowship to Rajesh Parsanathan and Endowed Chair in Diabetes to Sushil K. Jain from the Center for Cardiovascular Diseases and Sciences (CCDS), LSUHSC, Shreveport. We also thank the Research Core Facility at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport for generation of the gene expression data. Ms. Paula Polk kindly assisted with the 384-well block installation in the Applied Biosystems 7900HT Fast Real-Time PCR System. The authors thank Ms. Georgia Morgan for excellent editing.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sushil K. Jain.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

All authors listed have contributed to the conception, design, gathering, analysis or interpretation of data and have contributed to the writing and intellectual content of the article. All authors gave informed consent to the submission of this manuscript.

Additional information

Handling Editor: H. Jakubowski.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Parsanathan, R., Jain, S.K. l-Cysteine in vitro can restore cellular glutathione and inhibits the expression of cell adhesion molecules in G6PD-deficient monocytes. Amino Acids 50, 909–921 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-018-2559-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-018-2559-x

Keywords

Navigation