J Appl Biomed 6:195-201, 2008 | DOI: 10.32725/jab.2008.023

Changes in selected parameters of the antioxidant system in radiation damage to the organism

Leoš Navrátil^1,4,*, Jaroslav Racek², Renata Havránková¹, Ladislav Beránek³, Zuzana Freitinger Skalická¹, Hana Siffnerová¹, Eva Kantorová¹

¹ University of South Bohemia, Faculty of Health and Social Studies, Department of Radiology and Toxicology, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

² Charles University, Medical Faculty, Institute of Clinical Biochemistry and Hematology, Plzeň, Czech Republic

³ University of South Bohemia, Faculty of Education, Department of Informatics, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

⁴ Charles University, 1. Medical Faculty, Institute of Biophysics and Informatics, Praha, Czech Republic

The target of the present work was a study of the oxidation-reduction system of the organism damaged with ionizing radiation. The parameters chosen for examination were: the superoxide dismutase activity in erythrocytes, the concentration of reduced glutathione in erythrocytes, the activity of glutathione peroxidase in the total blood, the concentration of malondialdehyde in the blood plasma, and the antioxidant capacity of blood plasma. These parameters were monitored in four groups (patients after radiotherapy, volunteers whose blood was submitted to in vitro irradiation, employees of a nuclear power plant, and a group of healthy persons). A statistically significant decrease in the GSHPx activity was measured in patients after radiotherapy and in employees of the nuclear power plant. Results of processing the data obtained by the method of multidimensional analysis of variance suggest that the dynamics of the changes is comparable in the group of patients after radiotherapy and employees of the nuclear power plant on the one hand, and in the control group and group of healthy volunteers whose blood was subjected to in vitro irradiation, on the other. The study demonstrated changes concerning certain parameters of the oxidation-reduction system after the action of ionizing radiation.

Keywords: antioxidant system; blood plasma; ionizing radiation

Received: October 1, 2008; Revised: December 8, 2008; Published: July 31, 2008  Show citation