Superoxide dismutase and catalase activities in red cells of patients with malignancy of haematological origin.

ABSTRACT

Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase activities were determined in 55 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), acute megaloblastic leukaemia (AML) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in comparison to 40 healthy normal subjects. Their ages ranged from 2 to 10 years. The mean value of erythrocyte activity in these patients was not significantly different from up for 6 months also showed the tendency of decreased values to be lower than the lower limits of normal values. There was no relationship between SOD activity and Hb, Hct, red cell count in these patients. These findings did not confirm the previous report that erythrocyte SOD activity was significantly higher in patients with CLL, AML, Hodgkin’s disease and lymphosarcoma. No significant difference of erythrocyte catalase activity between the groups of patients and the normal group was demonstrated in the present study.