Ecdysone induction of MsrA protects against oxidative stress in Drosophila

The methionine sulfoxide reductases MsrA and MsrB reduce Met(O) to Met in epimer-specific fashion. In Drosophila, the major ecdysone induced protein is MsrA, which is regulated by the EcR-USP complex. We tested Kc cells for induction of MsrA, MsrB, EcR, and CAT by ecdysone and found that MsrA and the EcR were induced by ecdysone, but MsrB and CAT were not. When we tested for resistance to 20 mM H2O2 toxicity, viability of Kc cells was reduced 3-fold. Pretreatment with 0.2 μM ecdysone for 48 h prior to exposure to H2O2, increased viability to 77% of controls. The EcR-deficient L57-3-11 knockout line was not responsive to ecdysone, and H2O2 resistance of both control and ecdysone-treated L57-3-11 cells was similar to that of the ecdysone-untreated Kc cells. These results show that hormonal regulation of MsrA is implicated in conferring protection against oxidative stress in the Drosophila model.