Department of Histology and Cell Pathology in Zabrze, Faculty of Medical Sciences in Zabrze, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, 40-055 Katowice, Poland.
Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medical Sciences in Katowice, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, 40-055 Katowice, Poland.
Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Jan 16;25(2):1097. doi: 10.3390/ijms25021097.
Maintaining a balanced redox state within cells is crucial for the sustenance of life. The process involves continuous cytosolic disulfide reduction reactions to restore oxidized proteins to their reduced thiol forms. There are two main cellular antioxidant pathways-the thioredoxin (Trx) and glutathione (GSH)/glutaredoxin (Grx) systems. In the GSH/Grx system, glutathione reductase (GR; GSR) catalyses the reduction of GSH disulfide (GSSG) to its sulfhydryl form (GSH), which can then further reduce oxidized Grxs. GR is an essential enzyme that helps in maintaining the supply of reduced glutathione-GSH, which is a significant reducing thiol found in most cells and known for its antioxidant properties. Therefore, it can have a significant impact on cancer development. To investigate this further, we performed an immunohistochemical analysis of GR protein expression in colon adenocarcinoma samples collected from patients with primary colon adenocarcinoma (stage I and II) and patients with metastasis to regional lymph nodes (stage III). The results of our study revealed a significant relationship between the immunohistochemical expression of GR and tumour histological grade, depth of invasion, regional lymph node involvement, staging, and PCNA immunohistochemical expression. It was found that 95% of patients with stage I had low levels of GR expression, whereas 89% of patients with stage III had high levels of immunohistochemical expression. A high level of expression was also detected in the patients with stage II of the disease, where almost 63% were characterized by a high expression of GR. The Western blot method revealed that the highest level of expression was found in the LS 174T cell line, which corresponds to stage II. The results of our study indicate that the immunohistochemical expression of GR may act as an independent prognostic factor associated with colon adenocarcinoma patients' prognosis.
维持细胞内的氧化还原平衡对于生命的维持至关重要。这个过程涉及到持续的细胞质中二硫键还原反应,以将氧化的蛋白质还原为其巯基形式。有两个主要的细胞抗氧化途径——硫氧还蛋白(Trx)和谷胱甘肽(GSH)/谷胱甘肽还原酶(Grx)系统。在 GSH/Grx 系统中,谷胱甘肽还原酶(GR;GSR)催化 GSH 二硫化物(GSSG)还原为其巯基形式(GSH),然后 GSH 可以进一步还原氧化的 Grx。GR 是一种必需的酶,有助于维持还原型谷胱甘肽-GSH 的供应,GSH 是大多数细胞中重要的还原型巯基,因其抗氧化特性而广为人知。因此,它可能对癌症的发展产生重大影响。为了进一步研究这一点,我们对来自原发性结肠癌(I 期和 II 期)和区域淋巴结转移(III 期)患者的结肠腺癌样本进行了 GR 蛋白免疫组织化学分析。我们的研究结果表明,GR 免疫组织化学表达与肿瘤组织学分级、浸润深度、区域淋巴结受累、分期和 PCNA 免疫组织化学表达之间存在显著关系。研究发现,95%的 I 期患者 GR 表达水平较低,而 89%的 III 期患者 GR 免疫组织化学表达水平较高。在疾病的 II 期患者中也检测到高表达,其中近 63%的患者 GR 表达水平较高。Western blot 方法显示,LS 174T 细胞系表达水平最高,与 II 期相对应。我们的研究结果表明,GR 的免疫组织化学表达可能是与结肠癌患者预后相关的独立预后因素。