The antioxidant effects of copper sulphate on the actions of a phorbol ester and a xanthine-xanthine oxidase superoxide-anion generating system in murine epidermal cells.

Aqueous solutions of CuSO(4) were shown to inhibit cytochrome c reduction by xanthine-xanthine oxidase. Such copper solutions also significantly inhibited oxidant production, induced by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), measured as chemiluminescence, in murine epidermal cells in vitro. At the non-toxic level of 250 mum, CuSO(4) inhibited by 40% the induction of ornithine decarboxylase by TPA in murine epidermal cultures.