Overexpression of extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD) in mouse skin plays a protective role in DMBA/TPA-induced tumor formation

Extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD, EC 1.15.1.1) is a major antioxidant enzyme that is located in the extracellular matrix and on the cell surface. EC-SOD protects against cell and tissue damage initiated by extracellular-produced reactive oxygen species (ROS). We investigated a major role of EC-SOD in the development of tumor formation. In this study, we reported that skin-specific overexpressed EC-SOD transgenic mice showed half the number of tumors compared with the nontransgenic mice in the dimethylbenzanthracene (DMBA)-initiated and a 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-promoted two-stage skin carcinogenesis model. This model showed a significant increase of the epidermal cell proliferation in the nontransgenic mice, but the proliferative response in the transgenic mice was delayed. The 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8OH-dG) detection assay showed that the oxidative DNA damage was significantly higher in the nontransgenic mice than in the transgenic mice after TPA treatments. Overall, EC-SOD overexpression inhibited the TPA-induced cell proliferation and DNA damage, and reduced the subsequent formation of tumors. Our data suggest that EC-SOD plays a protective role in DMBA/TPA-induced skin carcinogenesis.