Lucigenin chemiluminescence as a probe for measuring reactive oxygen species production in Escherichia coli.
Addition of oxygen to whole cells of Escherichia coli suspended in the presence of the chemiluminescent probe bis-N-methylacridinium nitrate (lucigenin) resulted in a light emission increase of 200% of control. Addition of air to cells showed a chemiluminescent response far less than the response to oxygen. The redox cycling agents paraquat and menadione, which are known to increase intracellular production of O2- and H2O2, were also found to cause a measurable increase in lucigenin chemiluminescence in E. coli cells when added at concentrations of 1 and 0.1 mM, respectively. The oxygen-induced chemiluminescent response was not suppressed by extracellularly added superoxide dismutase or catalase. Further, the lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescent response of aerobically grown E. coli to oxygen was significantly greater than that of cells grown anaerobically. Heat-killed cells showed no increase in chemiluminescence on the addition of either oxygen, paraquat, or menadione. These results show that lucigenin may be used as a chemiluminescent probe to demonstrate continuous intracellular production of reactive oxygen metabolites in E. coli.
Department of Microbiology, Loma Linda University, California 92350.
T R
TR
Peters
J M
JM
Tosk
E A
EA
Goulbourne
D000166:Acridines; D000332:Aerobiosis; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D002374:Catalase / Q000494:pharmacology; D003580:Cytochromes / Q000378:metabolism; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D010100:Oxygen / Q000378:metabolism*; D010269:Paraquat / Q000494:pharmacology; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase / Q000494:pharmacology; D014812:Vitamin K / Q000494:pharmacology
D000166:Acridines; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D003580:Cytochromes; D014812:Vitamin K; C033472:10,10'-dimethyl-9,9'-biacridinium; D002374:Catalase; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase; D010269:Paraquat; D010100:Oxygen