Biomedical Research

Oxidative damage has been proposed as one of the possible mechanisms involved in Pb toxicity. To investigate this hypothesis we estimated various blood antioxidants in 25 bat-tery workers. Lead was analysed by Anodic stripping voltametry (ASV), all other parame-ters by spectrophotometric methods. Lead level was significantly high in battery workers (p=0.000). Erythrocyte superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity significantly decreased (p=0.00), whereas reduced glutathione (GSH) significantly increased (p< 0.01) compared to controls. Other enzymes viz., ceruloplasmin (CPL), gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) and catalase (CT) were in normal range. RBC lipid peroxidation and percentage hemoly-sis remained unaltered. There was a strong negative correlation between blood lead level and SOD activity in the study group. Therefore, the changes in the levels of some antioxi-dants may play an important role in abating hazards of lead poisoning.

Author(s): Gayathri M Rao, Beena V Shetty, Sudha K
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