Role of reactive oxygen species in protein degradation in murine myotubes induced by proteolysis-inducing factor and angiotensin II.

The antioxidants butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT, 1 mM) and D-alpha-tocopherol (10 microM) completely attenuated protein degradation in murine myotubes in response to both proteolysis-inducing factor (PIF) and angiotensin II (Ang II), suggesting that the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) plays an important role in this process. Both PIF and Ang II induced a rapid and transient increase in ROS formation in myotubes, which followed a parabolic dose-response curve, similar to that for total protein degradation. Antioxidant treatment attenuated the increase in expression and activity of the ubiquitin-proteasome proteolytic pathway by PIF and Ang II, by preventing the activation of the transcription factor nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB), through inhibition of phosphorylation of the NF-kappaB inhibitor protein (I-kappaB) and its subsequent degradation. ROS formation by both PIF and Ang II was attenuated by diphenyleneiodonium (10 microM), suggesting that it was mediated through the NADPH oxidase system. ROS formation was also attenuated by trifluoroacetyl arachidonic acid (10 microM), a specific inhibitor of cytosolic phospholipase A2, U-73122 (5 microM) and D609 (200 microM), inhibitors of phospholipase C and calphostin C (300 nM), a highly specific inhibitor of protein kinase C (PKC), all known activators of NADPH oxidase. Myotubes containing a dominant-negative mutant of PKC did not show an increase in ROS formation in response to either PIF or Ang II. The two Rac1 inhibitors W56 (200 microM) and NSC23766 (10 microM) also attenuated both ROS formation and protein degradation induced by both PIF and Ang II. Rac1 is known to mediate signalling between the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI-3K) product and NADPH oxidase, and treatment with LY24002 (10 microM), a highly selective inhibitor of PI-3K, completely attenuated ROS production in response to both PIF and Ang II, and inhibited total protein degradation, while the inactive analogue LY303511 (100 microM) had no effect. ROS formation appears to be important in muscle atrophy in cancer cachexia, since treatment of weight losing mice bearing the MAC16 tumour with D-alpha-tocopherol (1 mg kg(-1)) attenuated protein degradation and increased protein synthesis in skeletal muscle.