The cytosolic ribonuclease inhibitor contributes to intracellular redox homeostasis

The hypothesis that the cytosolic RNase inhibitor (cRI) has a role in the protection of the cellular redox homeostasis was investigated testing the effects of oxidants and anti-oxidants on normal, primary endothelial HUVE cells, and malignant HeLa cells, before and after their engineering into cRI-deprived cells. We found that cRI plays an important, possibly a key, physiological role in the protection of cells from redox stress, as demonstrated by decreased GSH levels as well as increased oxidant-induced DNA damage in cRI deprived cells.