Relation of oxidant-antioxidant imbalance with disease progression in patients with asthma

Abstract

Context: Asthma is a chronic airway disorder which is associated to the inflammatory cells. Inflammatory and immune cells generate more reactive oxygen species in patients suffering from asthma which leads to tissue injury.

Aims: To investigate the role of oxidant-antioxidant imbalance in disease progression of asthmatic patients.

Settings and design: In this study, 130 asthmatic patients and 70 healthy controls were documented.

Methods: For this malondialdehyde level, total protein carbonyls, sulfhydryls, activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), total blood glutathione, and total antioxidant capacity (FRAP) were measured.

Statistical analysis used: Analysis of the data was done using unpaired student t test and one-way ANOVA analysis. P < 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: The present work showed that the systemic levels of MDA (4.19 ± 0.10 nmol/ml, P < 0.001) and protein carbonyls (1.13 ± 0.02 nmol/mg, P < 0.001) were found to be remarkably higher in asthmatic patients while protein sulfhydryls (0.55 ± 0.01 mmol/l, P < 0.05) decreased as compared to controls (2.84 ± 0.12 nmol/ml, 0.79 ± 0.02 nmol/mg and 0.60 ± 0.02 mmol/l, respectively). We also observed decrease in activities of SOD (2047 ± 50.34 U/g Hb, P < 0.05), catalase (4374 ± 67.98 U/g Hb, P < 0.01), and GPx (40.97 ± 1.05 U/g Hb, P < 0.01) in erythrocytes compared to control (2217 ± 60.11 U/g Hb, 4746 ± 89.94 U/g Hb, and 48.37 ± 2.47 U/g Hb, respectively). FRAP level (750.90 ± 21.22 μmol/l, P < 0.05) in plasma was decreased, whereas total blood glutathione increased (0.94 ± 0.02 mmol/l, P < 0.05) as seen in control (840.40 ± 28.39 μmol/l and 0.84 ± 0.04 mmol/l).

Conclusions: This work supports and describes the hypothesis that an imbalance between oxidant-antioxidant is associated to the oxidative stress which plays a significant role in severity of the disease.

Keywords: Antioxidants; asthma; oxidants; oxidative stress; reactive oxygen species.

Figure 1

Relative percent of the measured anthropometric and spirometric parameters of asthmatic patients comparative to controls #P > 0.05, Non-significant; ^**P < 0.01; ^***P < 0.001

Figure 2

(a-c) Levels of lipid peroxidation products measured as TBARS expressed as nmol of MDA/ml of plasma, ^***P < 0.001; total protein carbonyls in plasma expressed as nmol/mg of protein, ^***P < 0.001; and total protein sulfhydryls in plasma expressed as mmol/l, ^*P < 0.05. Data are expressed in Mean ± SEM

Figure 3

(a-c) Superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase activity in erythrocytes expressed as U/g Hb; ^*P < 0.05 and ^**P < 0.01. Data are expressed in Mean ± SEM

Figure 4

(a and b) Total blood glutathione and ferric reducing antioxidant power in plasma expressed as mmol/l and μmol/l, respectively, ^*P < 0.05.