Figure 3.

Current understanding of the biological functions of TRX. Thioredoxin (TRX) is a redox-acting protein that exchanges disulfide to dithiol to maintain the reducing status of various molecules. In the cytoplasm, TRX acts as a radical scavenger, either by itself or in cooperation with peroxiredoxin. TRX also has antiapoptotic and anti-inflammatory effects, some of which are attributed to the regulation of intracellular signal transduction, such as ASK-1 and p38 MAPK, and DNA binding of NF-kB, AP-1, and p53. TRX is ubiquitously present in the human body and is also inducible by a wide variety of stress conditions via the modulation of transcription factor binding to its promoter region. This figure has been reproduced with permission from the authors [21].