Methionine-enkephalin Modulated Regulation of Oxidant/Antioxidant Status in Liver of CBA Mice

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are formed by all aerobic organisms, and are involved in the numerous physiological and pathophysiological processes. Opioid peptides belong to a class of bioactive compounds of great interest because of their opiate-like activity. We determined the influence of methionine-enkephalin (MENK) on age-associated oxidant/antioxidant status in liver of CBA mice. Lipid peroxidation (LPO), total superoxide dismutase (tSOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (Gpx) activities of 1, 4, 10 and 18 months old male and female control and MENK treated (10 mg/kg bw) CBA mice were determined. MENK showed gender-related effect on both oxidant/antioxidant parameters. It stimulated LPO in males, but suppressed in females. CAT and Gpx activities were lowered upon MENK exposure in males, but in females the activities were modulated by MENK. The relative mRNA levels for the antioxidant enzymes CuZnSOD, MnSOD, CAT and Gpx-1 were determined by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in groups where differences in activities between control and treated samples were observed. Changes of mRNA level in MENK treated groups showed that transcriptional regulation is both gender- and age-related. Comparison of enzyme activities and mRNA levels in control and MENK treated groups showed that, in some cases parallel changes occurred, while in other cases nonparallel changes were found. These results suggest that transcriptional changes are in accordance with enzyme activities in some cases, while in other cases posttranscriptional regulation of antioxidant enzymes may exist.