Fast Moving Fronts Comments by Jürgen Schrader

ESI Special Topics, September 2004
Citing URL: http://www.esi-topics.com/fmf/2004/september04-JurgenSchrader.html

From •>>September 2004

Jürgen Schrader answers a few questions about this month's fast moving front in the field of Biology & Biochemistry.

Field: Biology & Biochemistry
Article: Myoglobin: A scavenger of bioactive NO
Authors: Flogel, U;Merx, MW;Godecke, A;Decking, UKM;Schrader, J
Journal: PROC NAT ACAD SCI USA, 98: (2) 735-740, JAN 16 2001
Addresses: Univ Dusseldorf, Inst Herz & Kreislaufphysiol, Univ Str 1, D-40225 Dusseldorf, Germany.
Univ Dusseldorf, Inst Cardiovasc Physiol, D-40225 Dusseldorf, Germany.

  Why do you think your paper is highly cited?

“Our finding may be useful to researchers working on other newly discovered hemoproteins such as neuroglobin, cytoglobin, etc.”

Our paper is the first reporting myoglobin to be functionally important in cardiac nitric-oxide homeostasis in that it protects myocytic cytochromes against transient rises in cytosolic nitric oxide.

  Does it describe a new discovery or new methodology that's useful to others?

That hemoproteins in a test tube can act as a nitric oxide oxidase has been known for quite some time. That, under physiological conditions in the beating heart, this action of myoglobin is relevant was a new discovery. Our finding may be useful to researchers working on other newly discovered hemoproteins such as neuroglobin, cytoglobin, etc.

  How did you become involved in this research?

Crucial to our study was the generation of a myoglobin knockout mouse in our laboratory (Gödecke et al. PNAS 96:10495-10500, 1999) which permitted us to directly study the effect of nitric oxide, both in the absence and in the presence of myoglobin.

  Could you summarize the significance of your paper in layman's terms?

According to current textbook knowledge, the major function of myoglobin is the storage and transport of oxygen from the capillary to mitochondria—the energy-producing sites within cardiomyocytes. We reported a third function of myoglobin: it rather effectively breaks down nitric oxide, which is either normally produced by the coronary endothelium or is generated within cardiac cells in disease states. The ability of myoglobin to detoxify nitric oxide is cardioprotective and reduces the nitrosative stress to which mitochondria are normally subjected.

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Schrader
Universität Institut für Herz und Kreislaufphysiologie
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf, Germany

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ESI Special Topics, September 2004
Citing URL: http://www.esi-topics.com/fmf/2004/september04-JurgenSchrader.html