The activity of class I, II, III and IV of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) isoenzymes and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) in the wall of abdominal aortic aneurysms

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Abstract

Objective

Human blood vessels contain a huge amount of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), which play a significant role in the metabolism of many biological substances and participate in various metabolic pathways. The aim of this study was the investigation of the differences between the activities of ADH and ALDH in the wall of aortic aneurysm and wall of healthy aorta, that can explain the pathological background of aneurysm development.

Methods

For the measurement of the activity of class I and II ADH isoenzymes and ALDH activity the fluorometric methods was employed. The total ADH activity and activity of class III and IV isoenzymes was measured by the photometric method. The study material consisted of vessels wall samples obtained from 45 abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Results

The activity of the class I ADH isoenzyme was significantly lower in the wall of aortic aneurysm than in healthy aorta. The other tested classes of ADH showed the tendency to lower level of the activity in aneurysm tissue than that in wall of unchanged aorta. The activities of total ADH and ALDH were also not significantly lower in the aneurysms.

Conclusion

The decrease of the activity of class I ADH isoenzymes in the wall of aortic aneurysm may be a factor of some disorders in metabolic pathways with participation of these isoenzymes.

Introduction

The abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a potential fatal disease with increasing incidence in populations of developed countries (Alexander 2004). AAA is defined as an abnormal enlargement in the diameter of the aorta, with at least 50% increase over the unchanged, proximal section of the vessel (Adolph et al. 1997). Abdominal aortic aneurysms are associated with atherosclerosis, aging, smoking and hypertension, but the mechanism underlying development of aneurysms is not well understood. The wall of healthy human aorta contains various enzymes: elastases, collagenases, urokinase, plasmin and cathepsins. The activity of these enzymes is higher in the wall of aortic aneurysm than in the healthy aorta (Gacko and Glowinski 1998). High activity of lysosomal proteases in the wall of aortic aneurysm may participate in formation and enlargement of aortic aneurysm (Sohar and Katona 1992). Human blood vessels exhibit significant alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity (Allali-Hassani et al. 1997). Human ADH exists in multiple molecular forms that have been grouped into several classes (Maly et al. 1999). Class I is the classical liver alcohol dehydrogenase but also detected in the gastrointestinal tract. Class II in humans is found only in the liver whereas class III is present in all examined tissues. Class IV of alcohol dehydrogenase exists in the digestive tract organs (Jelski et al. 2002). Isoenzyme of class I is responsible for majority of total ADH activity in the blood vessels. It is detected in all layers of the aorta, with a higher contribution of the media. The vessels also contain the class III and IV of ADH isoenzymes (Allali-Hassani et al. 1997). These isoenzymes play a significant role in the metabolism of many biological substances. The best characterized function of ADH is metabolism of endogenous and orally administered ethanol to acetaldehyde. The enzyme responsible for metabolism of acetaldehyde derived from ethanol oxidation is ALDH, which catalyzes the oxidation of acetaldehyde to acetic acid (Yin et al. 1994). Chronic ethanol ingestion contributes to the etiology of hypertension (one of the risk factor for aortic aneurysm). Activity of ADH and ALDH in the wall of aortic aneurysm has not been investigated yet. The aim of the present study was is the investigation of differences between activity of ADH isoenzymes and ALDH in the wall of aortic aneurysm and unchanged wall of human aorta, what can explain the pathological background of aneurysm development.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

The protocol was approved by the Human Care Committee of the Medical University in Bialystok, Poland (Approval Nr R-I-002/59/2008). All patients gave an informed consent for the examination.

Results

The activities of total alcohol dehydrogenase, aldehyde dehydrogenase and ADH isoenzymes in wall of abdominal aortic aneurysm are listed in Table 1. We have shown that ADH and ALDH activities are present in the aneurysm tissues, although ALDH activity was much lower than ADH in all tested patients groups. The comparison of ADH isoenzymes activities showed that the highest activity was exhibited by class I ADH. The median activity of this class was 0.31 nmol/min/mg protein in aneurysm and

Discussion

Our study demonstrates that the highest activity between all tested ADH isoenzymes was exhibited by the class I isoenzyme. This is in agreement with data reported by Allali-Hassani et al. (1997). They showed that this class is responsible for most of ADH activity and is present in all vessels studied. Activity of ADH was detected in all layers of the aorta, with a higher contribution of the media. Contribution of the intima was significant, while the adventia showed a small activity. In our

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