Oxidative stress markers in the neocortex of drug-resistant epilepsy patients submitted to epilepsy surgery.

Purpose: While there is solid experimental evidence of brain oxidative stress in animal models of epilepsy, it has not been thoroughly verified in epileptic human brain. Our purpose was to determine and to compare oxidative stress markers in the neocortex of epileptic and non-epileptic humans, with the final objective of confirming oxidative stress phenomena in human epileptic brain.

Methods: Neocortical samples from drug-resistant epilepsy patients submitted to epilepsy surgery (n=20) and from control, non-epileptic cortex samples (n=11) obtained from brain bank donors without neurological disease, were studied for oxidative stress markers: levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as superoxide anion (O2(-)); activity of antioxidant enzymes: superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and glutathione reductase (GR); and markers of damage to biomolecules (lipid peroxidation and DNA oxidation).

Eicosanoid levels in the neocortex of drug-resistant epileptic patients submitted to epilepsy surgery.

There is an increasing body of evidence implicating eicosanoids (arachidonic acid metabolites) in the experimental generation of epileptic seizures and the development of epilepsy. Our purpose was to measure the synthesis of eicosanoids from the cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase pathways in human brain neocortex tissue samples obtained from epileptic patients, and to compare them with non-epileptic control subjects. Epileptic neocortex specimens demonstrated a significant increase (P<0.

Pharmacologically induced ischemia-reperfusion syndrome in the rat small intestine.

Background: Reports of ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury in vivo describe experiments in which lesions are induced by the physical procedure of clamping, (I/RIC). We compare this procedure with a pharmacologic technique in which I/R injury is induced by drug superfusion (I/RID).

Materials And Methods: We used rat intestine to determine whether the responses provoked by I/RIC, such as changes in reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitric oxide levels, are also provoked by I/RID.

Role of oxidative stress and adenosine nucleotides in the liver of aging rats.

We studied the response of several parameters related to oxidative stress in the liver of aging rats. Male Wistar rats aged 1.5, 3, 18 and 24 months were used.

Oxidative stress, nitric oxide and prostaglandin E2 levels in the gastrointestinal tract of aging rats.

Objectives: To evaluate the presence of oxidative stress and alterations in the levels of two cytoprotective agents, prostaglandin E2 and nitric oxide, in the gastrointestinal tract of aging rats.

Methods: The production of superoxide anion, lipid peroxides, levels of superoxide dismutase and catalase, and production of prostaglandin E2 and nitric oxide in the stomach and duodenum of rats were determined at 1.5, 3, 12, 18 and 24 months of age.