Inhibition of lipid peroxidation induced by hydroxyprogesterone caproate by some conventional antioxidants in goat liver homogenates.

Among the cellular molecules, lipids containing unsaturated fatty acids with more than one double bond are particularly susceptible to action of free radicals. The resulting reaction, known as lipid peroxidation, has deleterious effect on biological membranes, leading sometimes even to disrupting them, or influencing their structure and function. Different toxic products are formed during this process. In this context, the present study was made to explore the suppressive actions of some conventional antioxidant compounds e.g., ascorbic acid, alpha-tocopherol and probucol on lipid peroxidation induced by hydroxyprogesterone caproate (HP), a progestogenic compound. The study has been performed using goat liver homogenate. It was found that HP increased thiobarbituric acid reactive substance i.e., malondialdehyde (MDA) and also other major toxic end product of lipid peroxidantion - 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE). HP decreased significantly the levels of reduced glutathione (GSH) and nitric oxide (NO) in the liver homogenates. This suggests that HP caused lipid peroxidation to a significant extent, which may be related to the toxic potential of the drug. It was further found that all of the above mentioned antioxidants could suppress HP-induced lipid peroxidation to the significant extent.