Presence of dopa and amino acid hydroperoxides in proteins modified with advanced glycation end products (AGEs): amino acid oxidation products as a possible source of oxidative stress induced by AGE proteins.

Glycation and subsequent Maillard or browning reactions of glycated proteins, leading to the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), are involved in the chemical modification of proteins during normal aging and have been implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic complications. Oxidative conditions accelerate the browning of proteins by glucose, and AGE proteins also induce oxidative stress responses in cells bearing AGE receptors. These observations have led to the hypothesis that glycation-induced pathology results from a cycle of oxidative stress, increased chemical modification of proteins via the Maillard reaction, and further AGE-dependent oxidative stress. Here we show that the preparation of AGE-collagen by incubation with glucose under oxidative conditions in vitro leads not only to glycation and formation of the glycoxidation product Nepsilon-(carboxymethyl)lysine (CML), but also to the formation of amino acid oxidation products on protein, including m-tyrosine, dityrosine, dopa, and valine and leucine hydroperoxides. The formation of both CML and amino acid oxidation products was prevented by anaerobic, anti-oxidative conditions. Amino acid oxidation products were also formed when glycated collagen, prepared under anti-oxidative conditions, was allowed to incubate under aerobic conditions that led to the formation of CML. These experiments demonstrate that amino acid oxidation products are formed in proteins during glycoxidation reactions and suggest that reactive oxygen species formed by redox cycling of dopa or by the metal-catalysed decomposition of amino acid hydroperoxides, rather than by redox activity or reactive oxygen production by AGEs on protein, might contribute to the induction of oxidative stress by AGE proteins.