In vitro preparation of iron-substituted human manganese superoxide dismutase: possible toxic properties for mitochondria.

We prepared an iron-substituted form of recombinant human manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) by using guanidine hydrochloride for the first time as a model of iron-misincorporated MnSOD, the formation of which has been reported by M. Yang et al. upon disruption of mitochondrial metal homeostasis in yeast (Yang et al. 2006, EMBO J. 25, 1775-1783). The iron-substituted enzyme contained 0.79 g atoms of Fe/mol of subunits and had a specific activity of 80 units/mg protein/g atom of Fe/mol of subunit, which was less than 3% of the activity of the purified MnSOD. Fe-substituted MnSOD (Fe-MnSOD) showed the same absorption spectrum as that of bacterial Fe-MnSODs reported, a similar pH-dependent change of the enzymatic activity, and a similar electron paramagnetic resonance spectrum. Fe-MnSOD showed more thermal stability than native MnSOD. The Fe-substituted enzyme showed a hydrogen-peroxide-mediated radical-generating activity, which was monitored by a cation radical of 2,2'-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonate) formation similar to that of Cu,ZnSOD, but native human MnSOD and FeSOD showed no radical-generation ability. This evidence suggests that a substitution of Mn to Fe in human MnSOD in mitochondria may produce a disadvantage for oxidative stress in three ways: loss of the enzymatic activity, increase of stability, and gain of radical-generating ability.