Disease relevance of Aldh2

• Susceptibility to inhalation toxicity of acetaldehyde in Aldh2 knockout mice [1].
• Northern analysis showed that AHD-M1 mRNA was constitutively expressed in F9 and P19 embryonic teratocarcinoma stem cells and in AB1 embryonic stem cells [2].

High impact information on Aldh2

• The AHD-M1 gene encoded a protein with a putative amino acid sequence that was 94% and 97% identical to the mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenases of human and rat, respectively, and thus we have cloned the murine cDNA for this enzyme for the first time [2].
• AHD-M1 contained an open reading frame of 1554 base pairs, which encoded 517 amino acids [2].
• When the AHD-M1 and AHD-2 cDNAs were inserted into the expression vector pSG5 and transfected into cultured COS cells, 3-5-fold and 100-fold increases, respectively, in the conversion of [3H]retinaldehyde to [3H]retinoic acid could be detected by high performance liquid chromatographic assay [2].
• Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) 2 associates with oxidation of methoxyacetaldehyde; in vitro analysis with liver subcellular fraction derived from human and Aldh2 gene targeting mouse [3].
• In this study, we evaluated the inhalation toxicity of acetaldehyde in Aldh2 KO (Aldh -/-) mice, using pathological method [1].

Anatomical context of Aldh2

• AHD-2 is more active than AHD-M1 in this conversion, but AHD-2 is not the enzyme responsible for this conversion in F9 embryonic stem cells [2].

Associations of Aldh2 with chemical compounds

• This is the first example for studying pathological effects of Aldh2 deficiency using Aldh -/- mice exposed to a low level of acetaldehyde [1].

References