Heavy metal pollution is a global public health challenge due to its stable and persistent environmental contamination. Of these lead is considered to be one of the most common ubiquitous and industrial pollutants and at low concentration it exerts extensive damages to the tissues. Daily feeding of lead acetate solution (Dose: 10 mg/kg/day) to normal rats for a month adversely altered the parameters of blood, serum and tissues, viz; RBC, WBC, Hb, ɗ- ALAD (Delta amino levulinic acid dehydratase), Pb content, lipids, oxidized lipids (TBARS), vitamins C and E and GSH levels and activities of AST, ALT and antioxidant enzymes viz; catalase, GR, Gpx and SOD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNutraceuticals are nutritional medicines which are present in edible food items. Most of them are antioxidants with various other biological properties viz, anti inflammatory, anti atherogenic, anticancer, anti viral, anti aging properties etc. They are as simple as minerals like Se(2+) to complex organic molecules such as glycyrrhizin (Ca(2+), K(+) salts of glycyrrhizic acid).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndian J Clin Biochem
October 2013
Extensive research has demonstrated the protective properties of antioxidants, which scavenge reactive oxygen species and their precursors, as well as up-regulate enzymes involved in the repair of cellular damage. Several case-control studies have showed higher blood levels of antioxidants and decreased oxidative stress in younger individuals when compared with older ones. Cell damage caused by free radicals appears to be a major contributor in aging and degenerative diseases of aging such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, cataracts, compromised immune system, rheumatoid arthritis and brain dysfunction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis review article on the beneficial uses of Allium antioxidants tries to give some answers to the recent doubts raised by Singh et al. (Ind J Clin Biochem 25(3):225-243, 2010) against the claim of some researchers that Antioxidants (AOs) are miraculous molecules. Many people still believe that vitamins like A, C and E are the only true AOs that play important role in the corrections of metabolic derangements in life style diseases and hence all their faults are attributed to the failures of AOs as a class.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDaily feeding of drinking water containing lead acetate (160 mg/l) or 10% alcohol by volume or a combination of both to rats for a month produced certain deleterious effects through oxidative stress. Both heavy metal lead and alcohol are capable of doing such damages. The deleterious alterations observed were in the parameters of blood, serum and tissues, viz; Hb, Pb, proteins, lipids, lipid per oxidation, Vitamins C and E levels and enzyme activities of AST, ALT, and catalase.
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