自2007年日本学者证明呼吸氢具有抗氧化作用，可治疗脑缺血后氧化损伤的报道以来，目前关于氢气治疗疾病的文章已经有30多篇，国际上多家实验室先后证明，氢气能治疗脑缺血、肝缺血、小肠缺血、小肠移植后炎症反应、新生儿脑缺血缺氧、动脉硬化、肠炎和人类糖尿病等重要疾病和损伤。这些研究，主要是根据氢气可选择性清除毒性自由基，但似乎不能完全解释氢的广泛而强大的治疗作用。现在日本学者又报道了氢能通过调节信号分子抑制肥大细胞脱颗粒，能具有保护急性过敏反应，并证明氢气是一种新的气体信号分子，这是氢分子医学领域具有里程碑意义的研究，将直接影响将来关于氢的生物学效应的研究方向。与07年的文章一起，将对医学生物学研究产生巨大的影响。

近年来，关于气体的信号作用研究早已经成为一个热点，一氧化碳、一氧化氮和硫化氢先后被证明是重要的气体信号分子，氢气信号作用的发现，给这个队伍又增加了一个新的成员。

 阅读英文摘要

Molecular hydrogen suppresses FcεRI-mediated signal transduction and prevents degranulation of mast cells

Tomohiro Itoh, Yasunori Fujita, Mikako Ito, Akio Masuda, Kinji Ohno,

Masatoshi Ichihara, Toshio Kojima, Yoshinori Nozawa, Masafumi Ito

Abstract Molecular hydrogen ameliorates oxidative stress-associated diseases in animal models. We found that oral intake of hydrogen-rich water abolishes an immediate-type allergic reaction in mice. Using rat RBL-2H3 mast cells, we demonstrated that hydrogen attenuates phosphorylation of the FceRI-associated Lyn and its downstream signal transduction, which subsequently inhibits the NADPH oxidase activity and reduces the generation of hydrogen peroxide. We also found that inhibition of NADPH oxidase attenuates phosphorylation of Lyn in mast cells, indicating the presence of a feed-forward loop that potentiates the allergic responses. Hydrogen accordingly inhibits all tested signaling molecule(s) in the loop. Hydrogen effects have been solely ascribed to exclusive removal of hydroxyl radical. In the immediate-type allergic reaction, hydrogen exerts its beneficial effect not by its radical scavenging activity but by modulating a specific signaling pathway. Effects of hydrogen in other diseases are possibly mediated by modulation of yet unidentified signaling pathways. Our studies also suggest that hydrogen is a gaseous signaling molecule like nitric oxide.

Keywords: molecular hydrogen; immediate-type allergic reaction; mast cell; FceRI; signal transduction  

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 http://www.sciencenet.cn/htmlpaper/200910101520362687491.shtm