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Recently, interindividual variations in serum paraoxonase (PON1) activity and the differences in its metabolic activity towards different organophosphates (OPs) caused by the coding region polymorphisms L55M and Q192R have been found to be important risk factors in susceptibility to OP poisoning. In this study, we investigated the effect of PON1 on the outcome of acute OP intoxication and the effect of acute OP intoxication on PON1. Twenty-eight OP-poisoned patients and 66 healthy volunteers were studied. Patients were evaluated for the clinical manifestations of OP intoxication as well as PON1 activity, PON1 mass and PON1 polymorphisms. Butyrylcholine-esterase (BChE) activity was 50% lower (2,276 +/- 738 U/L versus 5,037 +/- 1,553 U/L, P<0.01) while PON1 activity was 30% lower [114.2 +/- 67.4 nmol/mL/min versus 152.9 +/- 78.9 nmol/mL/ min, P<0.05) in patients than in controls. We observed that the PON1 and BChE activities of eight of the original subjects returned to normal levels when they were reinvestigated six months after exposure. The frequency of the PON192Q allele was significantly higher in patients than controls (85.7% versus 59.7%, chi2=6.745, P=0.034). QQ/ MM individuals had the lowest activity towards paraoxon, while RR/LL individuals had the highest activity. Our data indicate that interindividual differences in PON1 activity and the PON1-55 and -192 polymorphisms are important risk factors in susceptibility to acute OP poisoning; therefore, identifying an individual's PON1 alloenzymes may play an important role in the treatment of patients suffering from OP intoxication.

Objectives: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is well recognized as being associated with increased prevalence of hypertension. Experimental and epidemiologic studies have shown that oxygen-free radicals are elevated because antioxidant enzyme activities are altered both in uncontrolled essential hypertension and DM itself. Recently paraoxonase (PON) has been recognized as an antioxidant enzyme that hydrolyzes lipid peroxides. The aim of this study is to evaluate simultaneously PON activities and antioxidant status in hypertensive type 2 DM cases and to establish any possible relationship between these parameters and duration of hypertension or diabetes, hemoglobin (Hb) A1c levels, and lipid parameters., Design and Methods: Nineteen normotensive subjects with type 2 DM, 37 hypertensive (diastolic blood pressure 90 mm Hg or more) subjects with type 2 DM, and 25 normotensive control subjects with normal glucose tolerance were selected for this study. Superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and basal-stimulated PON activities were measured by the methods of Sun et al.; Goth; and Eckerson, Wyte, and La Du, respectively; other lipid parameters were determined using an autoanalyzer., Results: Catalase activities of either hypertensive patients with type 2 DM or type 2 DM patients without complication were found to be higher than controls (p<0.01), although no significant difference in SOD and basal-stimulated PON activities was observed between these groups. A significant elevation in catalase activity (p = 0.004) of patients with high HbA1c levels (>7.0%) (n = 37) compared with patients with low HbA1c levels (<7.0%) (n = 19) was detected. There was also a positive correlation between the catalase activities and fasting glucose levels and HbA1c concentrations in hypertensive patients with type 2 DM (r = 0.4567, p<0.05 and r = 0.3686, p<0.05, respectively). An increase in catalase activity of patients with B and/or AB phenotype compared with patients with A phenotype was also noted., Conclusion: Poor glycemic control in diabetes is strongly associated with an increase in free radicals and consequent diabetic complications. Uncontrolled glucose metabolism may also be the cause of alterations in antioxidant enzymes. Among these, catalase correlates best with poor glycemic control. The current data reveal that B allele carriers of PON are more susceptible to oxidant stress.

The process of aging presents itself with various alterations in physiological events. Among many theories, the free radical (FR) theory of aging which reflects the FR damage to cellular components is accepted as one of the most important theories. Recently, the increases in catecholamine metabolism in aging have also attracted attention, and monoamine oxidase (MAO), a key enzyme in this process has been extensively studied. The aim of this study was to assess the role of FR species via MAO, a possible source of FRs, in physiological aging by determining the lipid peroxidation products (LPP) (malondialdehyde, diene conjugates) and antioxidant enzyme levels (superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) in young (3 months old, n=10) and aging (16-18 months old, n=10) rat brain tissues of Swiss male albino rats. In the second part of the study, the same parameters were determined after the acute administration of MAO inhibitors (deprenyl and pargyline, 25 mg/kg i.p.) to investigate whether these agents have any beneficial effects in reducing oxidant stress via inhibition of MAO. In old rat brains, MAO activities showed a significant increase (P=0.000) in addition to an insignificant increase in LPP, while SOD (P=0.007) and CAT activities showed a decrease with advancing age. After the acute administration of both deprenyl and pargyline, a significant decrease in the MAO activities of both young (P=0.0002 for each) and aging rats (P=0.0002 for deprenyl and P=0.0001 for pargyline) were observed. It was noted that deprenyl causes a significant increase in CAT activity (P<0.05) but a significant decrease in SOD activity (P<0.05) in young rats, while it causes only a significant increase in SOD activity in aging rats (P<0.05). Both deprenyl and pargyline cause a significant decrease in conjugated diene levels of aging rats (P<0.05). These results confirm the role of catecholamine oxidation and MAO activity as one of the causative factors in increased oxidant stress during aging. By reducing the oxidant stress observed in aging brain, MAO inhibitors, especially deprenyl, may contribute to the control of the aging process.

The effects of Vitamin E administration on antioxidant enzyme activities and nitrite-nitrate levels of the reperfused rat kidney tissues were investigated by performing a 60 min ischemia followed by 24 and 72 hours of reperfusion. Vitamin E administration or the placebo (SF) was applied as 100 mg/kg BW. As expected, catalase (CAT) (p<0.05) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) (p<0.05) activities of ischemia/reperfused (I/R) kidney tissue were lower and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were higher than control kidneys in both SF and vitamin E treated groups following 24 h reperfusion. During reperfusion of long term (72 h), vitamin E triggered a decrease in the MDA levels in the ischemic tissue, while it did not provoke a significant effect on SOD and catalase activities. Total nitrite levels of ischemic tissues in both of the groups were higher than matched control kidneys and this elevation was more clear in the vitamin E treated group. Our results showed that vitamin E has a protective effect on I/R injury, by a direct chain breaking effect on lipid peroxidation (LPO) and hence preventing the nitric oxide (NO) reservoir of ischemic tissue. Alfa-tocopherol may be a promising agent for the prevention of tissue injury caused by free oxygen radicals.