Vega-Naredo Ignacio, Coto-Montes Ana
Departamento de Morfología y Biología Celular, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain.
Methods Enzymol. 2009;452:457-76. doi: 10.1016/S0076-6879(08)03627-6.
The Syrian hamster Harderian gland (HG) displays a huge porphyrins metabolism with sexual dimorphism. Even in male Syrian hamsters with much lower porphyrins concentration than female HG, this activity is higher than in the liver. The damage derived from constant porphyrin production, displayed by reactive oxygen species, forces the gland to develop mechanisms that allow it to continue with its normal physiology. The survival strategy of the Harderian gland is mainly based on autophagic processes that are considered as a constant renovation system. Our results show different autophagy mechanisms in Syrian hamster HG, macroautophagy and other lysosomal-like processes such as chaperone-mediated autophagy, depending on sex and probably related to oxidative stress status. This chapter describes the methods used by us to characterize the autophagic processes that are being physiologically developed by this organ under normal conditions.
叙利亚仓鼠的哈德氏腺（HG）表现出巨大的卟啉代谢且具有性别二态性。即使在雄性叙利亚仓鼠中，其卟啉浓度远低于雌性哈德氏腺，但该腺体的这种活性仍高于肝脏。活性氧所显示的持续卟啉生成造成的损伤，迫使该腺体发展出能使其维持正常生理功能的机制。哈德氏腺的生存策略主要基于自噬过程，自噬被视为一种持续更新的系统。我们的研究结果表明，叙利亚仓鼠哈德氏腺存在不同的自噬机制，即巨自噬和其他类似溶酶体的过程，如伴侣介导的自噬，这取决于性别，且可能与氧化应激状态有关。本章描述了我们用于表征该器官在正常条件下生理发育过程中自噬过程的方法。
