Oxidant-antioxidant balance in patients with psoriasis.

Background: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by pathological skin lesions due to various exogenous and endogenous factors and associated with a number of biochemical and immunological disturbances. Antioxidant enzymes may be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the concentration of lipid peroxidation products and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity in the blood of patients with psoriasis before and after treatment by conventional methods.

The effect of antitumor drugs on oxidative stress in B16 and S91 melanoma cells in vitro.

Background: This study examined the effect of actinomycin-D (AMD), adriamycin (ADR), cisplatin (Cis-Pt), vincristine (VCR), cytosine arabinoside (Ara-C) and dacarbazine (DTIC) on the survival of B16 and S91 mouse melanoma cells in vitro, and on the concentration of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), the content of conjugated dienes (CD), and the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx).

Material/methods: B16 and S91 mice melanoma cells were cultivated in culture medium. After the selected drugs had been added to the culture medium, the viability of the melanoma cells was tested using two methods: the cell count in a phase contrast microscope with inverted optics, and the MTT Test.

[The influence of prostaglandins on metastases development].

Arachidonic acid metabolites including prostaglandins (PG) participate in many biological processes and play regulatory functions. The significant role of PG in physiological and pathological process is well known and described by many authors. Prostaglandins were demonstrated to have local hormone properties and often exert an antagonist effect.