Exhaled breath condesate nitric oxide end products and pH in controlled asthma

Asthma imposes a growing burden on the society in terms of morbidity, quality of life, and healthcare costs. It has the highest morbidity amongst inflammatory lung diseases and its prevalence continues to increase over the world. Inquiry into recent day or nighttime symptoms alone underestimates the burden of asthma and may lead to inadequate treatment of asthma. The aim of the present work is to evaluate the role of nitric oxide [NO] and hydrogen ion concentration [pH] levels in exhaled breath condensate [EBC] in cases of controlled bronchial asthma. The present study was conducted on 49 controlled asthmatic patients and 12 control subjects. All patients were subjected to thorough history taking, complete clinical examination and plain postero-anterior chest X-ray. All asthmatics and control subjects were subjected to routine laboratory investigations, spirometric study, EBC collection, processing and analysis for its content of both nitric oxide end products: nitrite and nitrate [NOx] and pH. All asthmatics represented Group IT which was further divided into Group Ia: 34 patients on regular inhaled corticosteroid [ICS] therapy and Group Ib: 15 patients on no regular therapy. The control subjects represented Group II. The forced vital capacity [FVC], forced expiratory volume in the first second [FEV1], FEV1/FVC, peak expiratory flow rate [PEFR] and forced expiratory flow during the middle portion of a forced expiration [FEF 25-75%] were significantly lower in asthmatics than control subjects. The EBC-NOx mean +/- SD in micro mol/L in Group IT [5.99 +/- 1.63], in Group Ia [5.27 +/- 1.26] and in Group Ib [7.63 +/- 1.15] were significantly higher than in Group II [3.66 +/- 0.67] with, respectively [p = 0.000], [p = 0.000] and [p = 0.000]; and was significantly higher in Group Ib than Group Ia [p = 0.000]. The EBC-pH mean +/- SD in Group IT [7.32 +/- 0.27], in Group Ia [7.35 +/- 0.25] and in Group Ib [7.27 +/- 0.3] were significantly lower than in Group II [7.82 +/- 0.09] with, respectively [p = 0.000], [p = 0.000] and [p = 0.000]; with no significant difference between Group Ia and Group Ib. The EBC-NOx was significantly directly correlated to eosinophils count [p = 0.017] and neutrophils count [p = 0.002]; and inversely correlated to FEV1 [p = 0.016], FEV1/FVC [p = 0.001], PEFR [p = 0.030] and EBC-pH [p = 0.003]. The EBC-pH was significantly inversely correlated to eosinophils count [p = 0.017] and neutrophils count [p = 0.036]; and directly correlated to FVC [p = 0.004], FEV1 [p = 0.004] and PEFR [p = 0.000]. EBC-NOx is significantly higher and EBC-pH is significantly lower in asthmatic patients than in control subjects. Asthmatics receiving ICS have a lower EBC-NOx level than those not. EBC-NOx and EBC-pH were significantly correlated and both of them showed significant correlations with spirometric parameters of airway obstruction

protective effect of antioxidants on renal ischemia-reperfusion injury in the rat

Renal ischemia-reperfusion [I/R] is of clinical interest because of its role in renal failure and also in renal graft rejection. There is increasing evidence to suggest that reactive oxygen species [ROS] play a role in the pathogenesis of I/R injury in the kidney. This study was designed to investigate the protective effect of some dietary antioxidants [garlic, vitamin E or vitamin A + Se [+2]] against the damage inflicted by [ROS] during renal I/R. Five groups of male albino rats were used in this study each composed of 10 rats. Group I: Sham-operated control group. Group II: I/R group [not treated] unilaterally nephrectomized after subjection of the left renal pedicle to 60 minutes of nontraumatic occlusion followed by 24 hours of reperfusion. Group III: the same procedure as group II but animals were preconditioned by adding garlic powder to their diet 80 mg kg[-1] daily for one month. Group IV: like group III but vitamin E [6.5 mg kg[-1]/d for one month] was supplemented to diet. Group V: like the two previous groups III and IV but vitamin A [7.9 mg/kg[-1]] and Se[+2] [50 microg/kg[-1]] were added daily to the rats' diet for one month. At the end of the reperfusion period, the rats were sacrificed. Malondialdehyde [MDA], Reduced glutathione [GSH] concentrations, superoxide dismutase [SOD], glutathione reductase and glutathione peroxidase enzymatic activities were determined in plasma and kidney homogenates of all groups. Serum creatinine and blood urea concentrations, were measured, for the evaluation of renal function. Also Na[+]-K[+]-ATPase was determined in kidney homogenates. Ischemic reperfused [l/R] animals demonstrated severe detonation of renal function and a significant renal oxidative stress. Pretreatment of animals with garlic, vitamin E or vitamin A + Se [2+] markedly attenuated renal dysfunction and oxidative stress as manifested by reducing blood urea, serum creatinine, MDA and restored depleted renal antioxidant enzymes. Na[+]-K[+]-ATPase activity, which was decreased in the I/R group, increased in the animals preconditioned with vitamins E and A + Se[2+]. From this it can be concluded that ROS play a causal role in I/R induced renal injury and supplementing the animals with garlic and/or other dietary antioxidants exerts protective effects. Therefore, it is recommended to supply patients expected to suffer from I/R renal injury with these antioxidants

status of antioxidant defences in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficient patients. The role of antioxidants to ameliorate hemolytic crisis

In human, G6PD deficiency is the most common enzymopathy affecting over 400 million people throughout the world. It is associated with higher potential for oxidative damage due to chronic redox imbalance in red cells that often results in clinical manifcstation of mild to severe hemolysis. The NADPH product of G6PD is required for the reductive biosynthetic reactions as well as for the stability of catalase, and the preservation of the reduced form of glutathione [GSH]. The aim of this study was to clarify the role of G6PD in cellular antioxidant defense; the level of glutathione, catalase, NADPH and estimate the level of malondialdehyde which reflect the oxidative stress across the cell membrane. Also to study the effect of antioxidant treatment [vitamins C and E] to ameliorate high sensitivity of red cells to oxidative stress. This study was carried out on fifty G6PD-deficient children during the attack. The children were classified into two groups: Group 1: received blood transfusion only, and considered as an antioxidant-untreated group. Group 2: Received blood transfusion as group I in addition to antioxidant therapy [antioxidant-treated group], and healthy control subjects as control group, Our study proved that hemolytic attack in G6PD deficient patients is due to a concomitant impairment of the two main mechanisms of detoxification of H[2]O[2] in RBCs; GSH system and catalase. The most important finding in this study is the efficiency of treatment with a combination of vitamin E and vitamin C may improve antioxidant status in G6PD deficient patients and in reducing the symptoms of hemolytic crises