Dimethylthiourea prevents hydrogen peroxide and neutrophil mediated damage to lung endothelial cells in vitro and disappears in the process.

Dimethylthiourea (DMTU) progressively disappeared following reaction with increasing amounts of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in vitro. DMTU disappearance following reaction with H2O2 was inhibited by addition of catalase, but not aminotriazole-inactivated catalase (AMT-catalase), superoxide dismutase (SOD), mannitol, benzoate or dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) in vitro. By comparison, DMTU disappearance did not occur following addition of histamine, oleic acid, elastase, trypsin or leukotrienes in vitro. Addition of DMTU also decreased H2O2-mediated injury to bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells (as reflected by LDH release) and DMTU disappeared according to both added amounts of H2O2 and corresponding degrees of injury. DMTU disappearance was also relatively specific for reaction with H2O2 in suspensions of endothelial cells where it was prevented by addition of catalase, but not AMT-catalase or SOD and did not occur following sonication or treatment with elastase, trypsin or leukotrienes. Addition of washed human erythrocytes (RBC) also prevented both H2O2 mediated injury and corresponding DMTU decreases in suspensions of endothelial cells. In addition, phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) and normal neutrophils, but not O2 metabolite deficient neutrophils from patients with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), caused DMTU disappearance in vitro which was decreased by simultaneous addition of catalase, but not SOD, sodium benzoate or DMSO. Finally, addition of normal neutrophils (but not CGD neutrophils) and PMA caused DMTU disappearance and increased the concentrations of the stable prostacyclin derivative (PGF1 alpha) in supernatants of endothelial cell suspensions. In parallel, DMTU also decreased PMA and neutrophil-mediated PGF1 alpha increases in supernatants from endothelial cell monolayers. Our results indicate that DMTU can decrease H2O2 or neutrophil mediated injury to endothelial cells and that simultaneous measurement of DMTU disappearance can be used to improve assessment of the presence and toxicity of H2O2 as well as the H2O2 inactivating ability of scavengers, such as RBC, in biological systems.