Can electrons travel through actin microfilaments and generate oxidative stress in retinol treated Sertoli cell?
In early reports our research group has demonstrated that 7 muM retinol (vitamin A) treatment leads to many changes in Sertoli cell metabolism, such as up-regulation of antioxidant enzyme activities, increase in damage to biomolecules, abnormal cellular division, pre-neoplasic transformation, and cytoskeleton conformational changes. These effects were observed to be dependent on the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), suggesting extra-nuclear (non-genomic) effects of retinol metabolism. Besides 7 muM retinol treatment causing oxidative stress, we have demonstrated that changes observed in cytoskeleton of Sertoli cells under these conditions were protective, and seem to be an adaptive phenomenon against a pro-oxidant environment resulting from retinol treatment. We have hypothesized that the cytoskeleton can conduct electrons through actin microfilaments, which would be a natural process necessary for cell homeostasis. In the present study we demonstrate results correlating ret