Hydrogen peroxide produced from the nectar redox cycle was shown to be a major factor contributing to inhibition of most microbial growth in floral nectar; however, this obstacle can be overcome by the floral pathogen Erwinia amylovora. To identify the source of superoxide that leads to hydrogen peroxide accumulation in nectary tissues, nectaries were stained with nitroblue tetrazolium. Superox...

A rapid centrifugal elutriation procedure was developed to prepare high amounts of pure human blood monocytes. After disruption by nitrogen cavitation, a cytosol and a membrane fraction were obtained by sucrose-Percoll density centrifugation. The plasma membrane fraction contained cytochrome b558 and was free of microsomal or mitochondrial cytochromes as determined by low-temperature absorbance...

Indoleacetaldehyde reductase catalyzes the conversion of indoleacetaldehyde to indole ethanol in extracts of Cucumis sativus L., with reduced pyridine nucleotide required as co-substrate. NADH and NADPH result in markedly different enzyme behavior, as reflected in reaction kinetics and in responses to inhibitors and activators. It is not yet clear whether there are two separate enzymes, one spe...

Objective(s) Increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production is implicated in the pathogenesis of arterial hypertension and the development of endothelial dysfunction. NADPH oxidase type enzyme family has been suggested to form ROS and to interfere with endothelium-dependent relaxation. However, the specific isoform of NADPH oxidases that may predominantly contribute to these events remains ...

OBJECTIVE Data suggest that matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) has a role in atherosclerosis. The phagocytic NADPH oxidase has been also associated with atherosclerosis. This study aimed to investigate the association between phagocytic NADPH oxidase and MMP-9 in human atherosclerosis. METHODS AND RESULTS In vitro experiments performed in human monocytes showed that NADPH oxidase activation e...

Engineering the cofactor specificity of a natural enzyme often results in a significant decrease in its activity on original cofactor. Here we report that a NADH-dependent dehydrogenase (d-LDH) from Lactobacillus delbrueckii 11842 can be rationally engineered to efficiently use both NADH and NADPH as cofactors. Point mutations on three amino acids (D176S, I177R, F178T) predicted by computationa...

The role of the reactive oxygen species-producing NADPH oxidase family of enzymes in the pathology of influenza A virus infection remains enigmatic. Previous reports implicated NADPH oxidase 2 in influenza A virus-induced inflammation. In contrast, NADPH oxidase 1 (Nox1) was reported to decrease inflammation in mice within 7 days post-influenza A virus infection. However, the effect of NADPH ox...

We examined age-related differences in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate diaphorase (NADPH-d) containing neurons and neuropil in the striatum and hippocampus of male Fischer 344 rats at 6, 12, and 26 mo of age. NADPH-d staining is considered to be a marker for neurons and neuronal processes containing nitric oxide synthase. Rat brains were processed for NADPH-d histochemistry and anal...

The pattern of distribution and co-localization of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and quinacrine fluorescence (indicative of vesicular adenosine 5'-triphosphate, ATP), and co-localization of NADPH-diaphorase (NADPH-d) activity and NOS-immunoreactivity in the myenteric plexus of pre-term human fetal (6-17 weeks of gestation) stomach and small intestine was examined using immunohistochemical and his...

NADPH diaphorase staining neurons, uniquely resistant to toxic insults and neurodegenerative disorders, have been colocalized with neurons in the brain and peripheral tissue containing nitric oxide synthase (EC 1.14.23.-), which generates nitric oxide (NO), a recently identified neuronal messenger molecule. In the corpus striatum and cerebral cortex, NO synthase immunoreactivity and NADPH diaph...