Elevated expression of hexokinase II protects XXXX lung epithelial-like A549 cells against oxidative injury.

@entity1 @entity871 @entity3403 @entity26256 @entity273 @entity519 @entity803 @entity413
Increased @entity413 utilization and @entity26256 expression are adaptive features of lung cells exposed to @entity519 or @entity871 . @entity26256 is the most regulated isoform of HK. Whether its overexpression could be protective against oxidative stress was explored in @entity1 lung epithelial-like (A549) cells. @entity26256 was overexpressed in A549 cells in a @entity803 -repressible retroviral vector system. Elevated expression of @entity26256 was confirmed by Western blot and activity measurements. Cell death caused by exposure to @entity871 was decreased in @entity26256 -overexpressing cells. This effect was reversed when @entity26256 expression was suppressed with @entity3403 . A similar protective effect was observed in @entity26256 -overexpressing cells after treatment with 1 mM @entity273 for 48 h. At baseline, fluorescence microscopy showed that overexpressed @entity26256 was localized to mitochondria. Electron microscopic studies showed that @entity871 -exposed @entity26256 overexpressors had better-preserved and quantitatively smaller mitochondria than those in which the @entity26256 expression was suppressed or in the nontransduced A549 cells. Mitochondrial membrane potential was increased in @entity26256 -overexpressing cells exposed to @entity871 compared with the nontransduced control cells under similar conditions. The present study demonstrates that @entity26256 protects @entity1 lung epithelial-like A549 cells against oxidative insults by protecting the mitochondria.
