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* Department of Animal Science and Reproductive Biology Program, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82071; and
Department of Surgical Pathology, Ivinson Memorial Hospital, Laramie, Wyoming 82072
1 To whom requests for reprints should be addressed at Department of Animal Science, 1000 East University Avenue, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071. E-mail: wmurdoch{at}uwyo.edu.
| Abstract |
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Key Words: ovulation oxidative DNA damage epithelial ovarian cancer vitamin E
| Introduction |
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Most ovarian cancers (>90%) are derived from the ovarian surface epithelium (1518). Common (i.e., surface) epithelial ovarian cancer has been related to (the trauma of) ovulation. Indeed, circumstances that prevent ovulation (e.g., oral contraceptives and pregnancy) protect against ovarian cancer (1922). Fortunately, oxidative disturbances to DNA perpetrated by ovulation are generally reconciled during the ensuing luteal phase as a result of p53-dependent cell-cycle arrest and base-excision repair mechanisms (11)it is a unifocal escape that could be problematic (23). Hence, predisposition to ovarian cancer likely involves a defective tumor suppressor/DNA repair pathway. More than one half of human ovarian adenocarcinomas have discernible mutations in p53 (24).
Normal ovarian surface epithelial cells are of an uncommitted phenotype. Cell-surface expression of the glycoprotein cancer antigen CA-125 (25) occurs with differentiation into a Mullerian-type epithelium. Precursor lesions of malignancy evidently emanate from epithelial cells that have undergone Mullerian metaplasia (26). CA-125 was expressed in cultures of p53-deficient sheep ovarian epithelial cells containing damaged DNA (27).
Epithelial ovarian cancer is a deadly, insidious disease because it typically remains asymptomatic until it has advanced into the abdominal cavity (2830); therefore, chemoprevention is a high priority. We hypothesized that vitamin E could be utilized to downregulate the genotoxic side effects of ovulation without compromising fertility. As far as is known, vitamin E is the most effective (by acting as a hydrogen donor at its 6-OH group), chain-breaking antioxidant in cellular membranes, and thereby contributes to membrane phospholipid stability and safeguards intra-cellular molecules against damage imposed by free radicals; it is essentially nontoxic (3133). There is epidemiological evidence suggesting an inverse relationship between consumption of vitamin E and risk of ovarian carcinoma (34, 35). Similar reports have advocated protective effects of vitamin E against cancers of the lung, stomach, colorectum, cervix, prostate gland, and breast (3638).
Research related to ovulation and fidelity of ovarian epithelial DNA has to date been conducted using an ovine model (11, 27). An initial comparative study was carried out to characterize oxidative DNA base damages in ovarian surface cells relative to sites of ovulation in sheep and humans. The 8-oxoguanine adduct, an effector of transversion mutagenesis, was used as a marker of base oxidations (39). A prospective antioxidant action of d-
-tocopherol (natural-source vitamin E) was then tested in sheep, and a follow-up experiment was performed to assess its effect on 8-oxoguanine accumulation and CA-125 expression in cells incubated with an antisense p53 oligonucleotide. Preovulatory gonadotropin secretion, ovulation, luteal function, and lambing rates were monitored in vitamin-treated ewes.
| Materials and Methods |
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Spatial Alterations in Immunoreactive 8-Oxoguanine in Surface Epithelial Cells Isolated from Postovulatory Sheep and Human Ovaries.
Mature Western-range ewes were observed twice daily for estrous behavior in the presence of vasectomized rams. Day 0 was considered the first day of estrus (the preovulatory surge of gonadotropins occurs on Day 0; ovulation occurs approximately 24 hrs after the initiation of the surge; Ref. 40). Ovaries containing an ovulated follicle (n = 4) were excised at sacrifice (intravenous Beuthanasia-D; Schering-Plough Animal Health, Kenilworth, NJ) at 60 hrs after detection of estrus (Day 2). Early luteal phase ovarian specimens were obtained from women (n = 3) that had undergone prophylactic oophorectomy.
Ovaries were fixed by immersion in Histochoice (Amersco, Solon, OH). Ovarian surface epithelial cells were removed (>95% purity) from the perimeters of postovulatory follicles (~3 mm outward) and an extrinsic (i.e., unaffected) area (>10 mm from an ovulation papilla) using a modified polytetrafluoroethylene scraper as described previously (41). Samples were transferred onto microscope slides treated with subbing solution (0.025% chromium potassium sulfate, 0.25% gelatin); air-dried; washed in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS); permeabilized in ice-cold methanol (70% for 3 mins, 90% for 3 mins, 99% for 30 mins); rehydrated to PBS; and analyzed by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy. Slides were incubated for 30 mins with 10% normal goat serum and for 1 hr with an 8-oxoguanine monoclonal antibody (1 µg/ml IF7/4355-MC-100; Trevigen, Gaithersburg, MD); washed in two changes of PBS; incubated for 30 mins with secondary goat antimouse immunoglobulin G-fluorescein isothiocyanate (1:40 F 0257); and washed in two changes of PBS. Images of individual cells were captured (x400; subsampling = 20) by computer-interfaced digital photography (1.2 million pixel resolution; Pixera, Los Gatos, CA) and assessed for luminance intensities (continuous inverted gray scale = 0 [black] to 255 [white]; Optimas Software, Bothell, WA). Negative controls were conducted without primary antibody and with primary antibody preabsorbed with an 8-oxoguanine nucleotide (Trevigen).
Effects of Vitamin E on Ovulation/Luteinization and Oxidant Insults to DNA of the Ovarian Epithelium.
Ten ewes per group were treated by intramuscular injection at the onset of estrus with vitamin E (2100 IU; Schering-Plough) or vehicle (7 ml Tween-80 polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate + 20% ethanol). The dose of vitamin E was 1.52 times above that recommended for treatment of deficient ewes or finishing lambs (31). Serum vitamin E concentrations peak at about 10 hrs and remain elevated for 72 hrs following injection (42, 43). Blood samples for serum luteinizing hormone (LH) radioimmunoassay (44) were obtained by jugular venipuncture at 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 hrs post-treatments.
Ovarian surface epithelial cells were harvested on Day 2 and analyzed for 8-oxoguanine. Tissue blocks containing a postovulatory follicle were fixed in Histochoice, washed in PBS, dehydrated, cleared, infiltrated with paraffin wax, serially cross-sectioned at 6-µm thickness, floated onto microscope slides, air-dried, deparaffinized in xylene, rehydrated, stained in hematoxylin and eosin, and examined by light microscopy.
In Vitro Responses of p53-Attenuated Cells Following In Vivo Exposure to Vitamin E.
Ten ewes were treated at detection of estrus with vitamin E or injection vehicle (n = 5), and ovarian surface epithelial cells were recovered on Day 2 from circumferences of ovulated follicles and extrinsic zones. Cells were divided equally into aliquots of 0.1 ml RPMI-1640 medium and incubated in 96-well plates for 2 or 6 days (37°C) with 1 µM sodium salt phosphorothioate antisense p53 (5'-CCCTGCTTCCCCTG-GTTC-3') or sense control (5'-GGAACCAGGGGAAAG-CAGGG-3') oligonucleotide (Gene Link, Hawthorne, NY). Antisense oligonucleotide was designed to counter a specific region in the ovine mRNA sequence complementary to positions 11641183 (45). Cells were evaluated by immunofluorescence for 8-oxoguanine, p53, and CA-125. Conditions used to detect p53 (monoclone KAM-CC002; StressGen Biotechnologies, Victoria, Canada) and CA-125 (monoclone OC-125; Signet Laboratories Inc., Dedham, MA) were the same as those described for 8-oxoguanine; negative controls were performed with primary antibodies preabsorbed with recombinant p53 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA) or purified CA-125 (Research Diagnostics Inc., Flanders, NJ).
Functional Capacity and Life Span of the Corpus Luteum in Ewes Treated During the Preovulatory Period with Vitamin E.
Ten animals were treated at detection of estrus with vitamin E or vehicle (n = 5). Daily jugular blood samples for serum progesterone radioimmunoassay (46) were collected from Day 4 until return to estrus.
Effect of Vitamin E on Pregnancy Outcome in Ewes.
Animals treated at detection of estrus with vitamin E (n = 49) or vehicle (n = 50) were penned with fertile rams. Numbers of lambs born per ewe and lamb health (relative vigor and physical deformities) were recorded.
Statistical Analyses.
Assignments to treatments and selections of fields of microscopic inspection were made at random. Subsample data were averaged. Mean comparisons were made by Students t test or analysis of variance (ANOVA) and protected least significant difference. Serum progesterone profiles were contrasted by split-plot ANOVA. Lambing rates were compared by chi-square.
| Results |
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| Discussion |
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Results of our initial experiment indicate that 8-oxoguanine distresses to the ovarian epithelium that arise around the time of ovulation in ewes also are manifested in women. A major source of free radicals are those liberated by leukocytes (50) that infiltrate periovulatory follicles (51, 52). Another contributing factor could be the ischemia-reperfusion flux (53) associated with ovulatory follicular rupture and luteinization (51, 54). The ovarian surface epithelium may be vulnerable to genetic damages that are not repaired because it has not been under a strong evolutionary pressure to respond to repeated ovulations (16).
Cultures of sheep ovarian surface cells containing unrepaired DNA exhibited a precursor characteristic (i.e., CA-125 expression) of epithelial carcinoma. CA-125 was first identified over two decades ago as an immunogenic determinant on an ovarian adenocarcinoma cell line (25). The molecular characterization of CA-125 has since proven arduous. Most studies have indicated that CA-125 is a heterogeneous high-mass mucinous protein. Size estimates of CA-125 have ranged from 200 to 2000 kd, with smaller subunits being reported (55, 56). The gene encoding CA-125 yields a putative transmembrane molecule with a dominate extracellular motif composed of tandem repeat units, a plasmalemma-spanning domain, and short cytoplasmic tail (57). A pathophysiological function for CA-125 has not been established; roles in tumor cell shedding consistent with early stages of peritoneal spread (55) and in complement inhibition (58) have been proposed.
It is apparent that vitamin E can safeguard the ovarian epithelium from ovulation-induced oxidative DNA damages (and metaplasia). Programmed cellular death within the surface epithelium at the apex of preovulatory follicles, formation of a stigma, and accordingly ovulation are evidently mediated by a differential mechanism (in the sheep, apoptosis is caused by tumor necrosis factor
; Ref. 59) than those provoking oxidative damages to DNA. Ischemia-reperfusion injury to grafts of ovarian tissues was reduced by vitamin E (60). Supplemental vitamin E (e.g., at midcycle) could be of particular value in women considered to be at a preeminent ovarian cancer risk (e.g., those with a genetic predisposition who are not using a contraceptive technique that inhibits ovulation). Moreover, it is unlikely that vitamin E would pose a threat in the event of pregnancy.
Vitamin E also can act via mechanisms beyond its oxidant-quenching properties (e.g., by inhibition of protein kinase C and activation of phosphatase 2A and diacylglycerol kinase pathways). Nitric oxide production by endothelial cells and superoxide release by leukocytes is suppressed by vitamin E (61). Nonredox modes of
-tocopherol action include inhibitory and stimulatory effects on rates of mitosis and removal of damaged DNA, respectively (6265). Therefore, vitamin E could bear secondary (assuming that DNA damage occurred) advantages during the immediate postovulatory period: impeding untoward proliferative responses of ovarian surface epithelial cells until repairs to DNA are accomplished.
The sequences of events that lead to common epithelial ovarian cancer are multifactorial. Several aberrant phases are undoubtedly required to yield a malignant phenotype with distinct growth and metastatic advantages. We suggest that a first step toward tumorigenesis involves oxidative damages to DNA inflicted upon the ovarian surface epithelium as a side-effect of the ovulatory process. Novel findings of this investigation indicate that the antioxidant vitamin E protects ovarian surface epithelial cells by subjugating the deleterious (mutagenic) potential of ovulation.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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Received for publication January 12, 2004. Accepted for publication March 4, 2004.
| Reference |
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-tocopherol in sheep after intramuscular injection of DL-
-tocopherol. J Anim Sci 70:25622567, 1992.[Abstract]
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