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. 2016 Sep 29;13(10):969.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph13100969.

l-Arginine Enhances Resistance against Oxidative Stress and Heat Stress in Caenorhabditis elegans

Heran Ma  1 , Yudan Ma  2 , Zhixian Zhang  3 , Ziyuan Zhao  4 , Ran Lin  5 , Jinming Zhu  6 , Yi Guo  7 , Li Xu  8
Affiliations

l-Arginine Enhances Resistance against Oxidative Stress and Heat Stress in Caenorhabditis elegans

Heran Ma et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The antioxidant properties of l-arginine (l-Arg) in vivo, and its effect on enhancing resistance to oxidative stress and heat stress in Caenorhabditis elegans were investigated. C. elegans, a worm model popularly used in molecular and developmental biology, was used in the present study. Here, we report that l-Arg, at a concentration of 1 mM, prolonged C. elegans life by 26.98% and 37.02% under oxidative and heat stress, respectively. Further experiments indicated that the longevity-extending effects of l-Arg may be exerted by its free radical scavenging capacity and the upregulation of aging-associated gene expression in worms. This work is important in the context of numerous recent studies that concluded that environment stresses are associated with an increased population death rate.

Keywords: ">l-Arg; C. elegans; antiaging; antioxidant; free radical.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
l-Arg enhances the resistance of C. elegans to stress conditions. (A) Protective effects of l-Arg (1 mM) on N2 wild-type C. elegans under oxidative stress; (B) Protective effects of l-Arg (1 mM) on N2 wild-type C. elegans under heat stress; (C) l-Arg at a concentration of 1 mM decreased ROS accumulation in C. elegans in response to juglone-induced oxidative stress, over time. All experiments were conducted in triplicate and were conducted in a double-blind manner.
Figure 2
Figure 2
l-Arg upregulates SOD-3::GFP in CF1553 worms. (A) Images of SOD-3::GFP expression in l-Arg-treated and control worms; (B) Quantitative fluorescence analysis in transgenic CF1553 worms. The data are presented as the mean ± SE of four individual experiments, with 40 worms in each group (** p < 0.01).
Figure 3
Figure 3
l-Arg upregulates HSP-16.2::GFP expression in CL2070 worms. (A) Images of HSP-16.2::GFP expression in control and l-Arg-treated worms; (B) Quantitative fluorescence analysis in transgenic CL2070 worms. Data are presented as the mean ± SE of four individual experiments, with 40 worms in each group (** p < 0.01).
Figure 4
Figure 4
The regulatory effects of l-Arg on ageing-associated genes in C. elegans. (A) Worms were treated with or without 1 mM l-Arg. RT-PCR was performed to quantify the expression of the ageing-associated genes in C. elegans. Data are presented as mean ± SE (** p < 0.01); (B) Proposed mechanism of action: l-Arg regulates IIS in C. elegans by downregulating the expression of DAF-2 receptor and subsequently triggering the overexpression of daf-16 and its downstream target genes, and ultimately enhancing the resistance against the environment stresses.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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