PURPOSE Ethyl pyruvate has anti-inflammatory properties and protects organs from ischemia/reperfusion (I/R)-induced tissue injury. The aim of this study was to determine whether ethyl pyruvate decreases the inflammatory response after regional I/R injury and whether ethyl pyruvate protects against delayed regional I/R injury in an in vivo rat heart model after a 24 hours reperfusion. MATERIAL...

The binding of pyruvate dehydrogenase and dihydrolipoyl dehydrogenase (flavoprotein) to dihydrolipoyl transacetylase, the core enzyme of the E. coli pyruvate dehydrogenase complex [EC 1.2.4.1:pyruvate:lipoate oxidoreductase (decaryboxylating and acceptor-acetylating)], has been studied using sedimentation equilibrium analysis and radioactive enzymes in conjunction with gel filtration chromatogr...

Heat tolerance is well known to be key to fungal survival in many habitats, but our mechanistic understanding of how organisms adapt to heat stress is still incomplete. Using Metarhizium robertsii, an emerging model organism for assessing evolutionary processes, we report that pyruvate is in the vanguard of molecules that scavenge heat-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS). We show that, as wel...

Initial velocity studies in the absence and presence of product and dead-end inhibitors suggest a steady-state random mechanism for malic enzyme in the direction of reductive carboxylation of pyruvate. For this quadreactant enzymatic reaction (Mn2+ is a pseudoreactant), initial velocity patterns were obtained under conditions in which two substrates were maintained at saturating concentrations ...

Transient cerebral ischemia (TCI) occurs when blood flow to the brain is ceased or dramatically reduced. TCI causes energy depletion and oxidative stress, which leads to neuronal death and cognitive impairment. Dichloroacetic acid (DCA) acts as an inhibitor of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDK). Additionally, DCA is known to increase mitochondrial pyruvate uptake and promotes glucose oxidation...

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is suspected to be involved in numerous brain pathologies such as neurodegenerative diseases or in acute injury such as ischemia or trauma. In this study, we examined the ability of pyruvate to improve the survival of cultured striatal neurons exposed for 30 min to H2O2, as estimated 24 hr later by the 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazoliumbromide assay. P...

When cod fish muscle oxalacetate decarboxylase catalyzes the decarboxylation of oxalacetate in the presence of NaBH4, L-lactate results from the reduction of enzyme-bound pyruvate. However, D-lactate results when borohydride reduces the binary enzyme-pyruvate complex formed by adding pyruvate from solution, as reported by others. This observation suggests that there are alternate mechanisms for...

Efforts to improve cancer care in the developing world will benefit from the identification of simple, inexpensive, and broadly applicable medical modalities based on emergent innovations in treatment, such as targeting mechanisms of tumoral immune tolerance. In this report, we offer preclinical evidence that the low-cost, anti-inflammatory agent ethyl pyruvate elicits a potent immune-based ant...

Cardiac mitochondria were isolated from Bufo marinus and Rana catesbeiana, two species of amphibian whose cardiovascular systems are adapted to either predominantly aerobic or glycolytic modes of locomotion. Mitochondrial oxidative capacity was compared using VO2 max and respiratory control ratios in the presence of a variety of substrates including pyruvate, lactate, oxaloacetate, beta-hydroxy...

The uptake of pyruvate by yeast was studied under a variety of conditions of temperature, extracellular concentration, O(2) pressure, and pH. It was shown that physical diffusion adequately explains the permeation of undissociated pyruvic acid into the outer and inner regions of the cell. The entrance of pyruvate ion into the outer region appears to take place by the same process. The passage o...