O.V. Zemchenkova, O.V. Basharina, S.I. Pozdnyakova, V.G. Artyukhov

Functional activity of lymphocytes, as well as any cells depends on the intensity of their metabolism. Energy metabolism is closely related to functional activity of immune cells. Namely the provision or the lack of energy determines the chain of regulatory, metabolic and structural changes in the body. For activated T-cells requires an increased expression of the glucose transporter GLUT 1. If glucose uptake would be limited, than the glycolytic flux would be reduced to the level, that will not allow maintenance of viable cells, leading to the activation of pro-apoptotic proteins of Bcl-2 family, causing cell death. We have previously shown that in native lymphocytes during daily incubation the decrease of the activity of mitochondrial enzymes: succinate dehydrogenase and cytochrome c oxidase and a simultaneous increase of lactate dehydrogenase activity were observed. The shift of the substrate flow mainly to anaerobic pathway causes the decrease of ATP concentration during daily incubation of native lymphocytes. However, incubation of cells in a hyperglycemic medium leads to increased intensity of aerobic oxidation in the mitochondria. Activities of studied enzymes increased after daily incubation of photomodified lymphocytes, moreover these parameters were higher than the corresponding values for native freshly isolated cells. Incubation of UV-irradiated cells in hyperglycemic medium intensity of aerobic catabolic reactions increased in comparison to cells incubated in medium with normal glucose content. Thus, the presence of increased amounts of glucose and its consumption by lymphocytes in catabolic pathways also increases; this probably required to preserve cell viability, also under UV irradiation. Considering the high information content of metabolic parameters for characterization of the functional state of lymphocytes and high sensitivity of immune system cells to various factors, we can conclude that investigation of immune status and metabolism of lymphocytes allow to identify both characteristics of intracellular metabolism and immune system response during influence of UV radiation on the human body.