Journal of Biochemistry Advance Access originally published online on September 10, 2007
Journal of Biochemistry 2007 142(5):571-576; doi:10.1093/jb/mvm165
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© 2007 The Japanese Biochemical Society
Sodium Bicarbonate Enhances Membrane-bound and Soluble Human Semicarbazide-sensitive Amine Oxidase Activity In Vitro

1Dept. Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Facultat de Medicina, Institut de Neurociències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; 2Servei de Neurología, Hospital Universitari de la Vall dHebron; 3Fundació ACE. Institut Català de Neurociències Aplicades. Barcelona, Spain; and 4Biochemistry Department, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
To whom the correspondence should be addressed. Tel: + 34 93 5811439, Fax: + 34 93 5811573, E-mail: Mercedes.Unzeta{at}uab.es
Received June 25, 2007; Accepted August 3, 2007
| Abstract |
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Semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase (SSAO) is a multifunctional enzyme with different biological roles that depend on the tissue where it is expressed. Because SSAO activity is altered in several pathological conditions, we were interested in studying the possible regulation of the human enzyme activity. It has been previously reported that SSAO activity is increased in the presence of Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium (DMEM) in vitro. The aim of the present work was to investigate the effects of the different constituents of DMEM on human SSAO activity. We found that sodium bicarbonate was the only component able to mimic the enhancement of both human aorta and plasma SSAO activity in vitro, suggesting a possible physiological role of bicarbonate as an intrinsic modulator of the human enzyme. Failure to take this activating effect into account could also result in inaccuracies in the reported tissue activities of this enzyme.
Key Words: activity enhancement, dulbecco's modified eagle medium, semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase, sodium bicarbonate, vascular adhesion protein-1
Abbreviations: DMEM, Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium; MAO, monoamine oxidase; SSAO, semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase
*The authors wish it to be known that, in their opinion the first authors contributed equally to this work.