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Query: UMLS:C0242706 (hyperoxia)
 5,219 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Apoptosis in the central nervous system (in contrast to necrosis) is an endogenous cell suicide mechanism triggered in response to biological factors and genotoxic stimuli often resulting from oxidative stress. Excessive neural apoptosis may result in longterm brain dysfunction. A significant proportion of prematurely born infants are exposed to high oxygen and nutritional regimens deficient in antioxidant precursors. Such infants frequently display cognitive deficits when studied in later childhood. Studies in cell culture have characterized a close relationship between oxidative stress, glutathione availability and cell death. Here, we assessed this relationship in rat brain, as a model approximation of the situation that occurs in human infants. Two day old rats were exposed to an atmosphere of 95% oxygen and treated with buthionine sulfoximine (BSO), a glutathione synthesis inhibitor. Control groups consisted of rat-pups kept in air, air plus BSO, or oxygen alone. At the end of 5 days of treatment, brains were harvested, dissected and nerve growth factor protein (NGF), glutathione, and extent of apoptosis were measured. Hyperoxia induced a decrease in NGF protein while BSO induced a decrease in glutathione concentrations. Animals treated with both hyperoxia and BSO had a dramatic increase in the extent of brain apoptosis detected. We conclude from these studies that the brains of animals exposed to both oxidative stress and limited antioxidant protection are liable to pro-apoptotic changes. Increased cell death via apoptosis reflecting changes in neurotrophin and glutathione homeostasis may represent the mechanism responsible for the induction of the longterm cognitive deficits observed in some preterm infants.
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PMID:Induction of apoptosis in the CNS during development by the combination of hyperoxia and inhibition of glutathione synthesis. 984 Jul 39

It is generally accepted that chronic inflammatory disease, either local or generalized, is associated with higher incidence of cancer. Since inflammation is often accompanied by oxidative stress the latter was indicated as the foundation for progressive mutations leading to tumor development (proliferation, invasion, metastasis). Even though, it is very hard to demonstrate by in vitro studies the causal relationship between oxidative stress and cell transformations. From our studies it is clear that cells are more likely to stop divisions and they commit suicide by apoptosis. During last decade, a novel view on the origin of cancer emerged. The so called cancer stem cells (CSC) were found that form the side-population of stem cells (SC) and they are believed to initiate cancer. Are the SC ancestors for CSC? Do SC transform into CSC? These and other questions remain unanswered. We hypothesize that SC might undergo transformation into CSC during prolonged oxidative stress. We claim that several changes in cell biochemistry has to occur to start the molecular modifications leading to neoplasma. These include either hypoxia-promoted apoptosis signal inducing kinase 1 (ASK-1), hypoxia inducing factor 1 alpha (HIF-1alpha) and glycolysis, or normoxia-promoted activating protein-1 (AP-1) or hyperoxia-induced nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB). Next, harsh microenvironment and heterogenous extracellular matrix (ECM) induced by oxidative stress accelerate the selection of clones of cells resistant to apoptogenic signal. HIF-1alpha, protein crucial for transcriptional activation of protooncogene met leads to the overexpression of c-Met receptor that in turn sensitizes cells to hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor (HGF/SF) mitogen. Finally, both impaired function of mitochondria and hypoxia elevate fibrin protein level and amplify hemostasis as disseminated intracapillary coagulation (DIC). In any case, it is very interesting and remains to be answered whether imbalance in prooxidant-antioxidant homeostasis has causal relationship with transformation of SC to CSC.
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PMID:Possible implications of redox-sensitive tumour cell transformation; lessons from cell culture studies. 1788 38