Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
The XIII International Congress of Toxicology, Seoul, Güney Kore, 30 Haziran - 04 Temmuz 2013, ss.32
Free radicals are
chemical molecules with unpaired electrons, which are known as strong oxidants
because of making a connection with cellular molecules such as lipids, proteins
and nucleic acids and destroying their functions. Impaired antioxidant
mechanisms against these oxidants can result in cell injury and induce a
variety of diseases including schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, Down’s
syndrome and Parkinson’s disease. The cellular antioxidant defense system
includes enzymatic and non-enzymatic processes. The main antioxidant enzymes
blocking the initiation of free radical chain reactions are superoxide
dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), hydrogen peroxidase and
catalase (CAT). The aim of the study is to detect the
activities of antioxidant enzymes in autistic and healthy control children. For
this purpose, 45 children with autistic syndrome according to the DSM-IV
criteria and 41 healthy controls were included in this study. Blood samples
were collected into glass tubes containing EDTA and activities of erythrocyte
SOD, erythrocyte and plasma GSH-Px were assayed spectrophotometrically.
Student’s t-test was performed for the statistical analyses. As a result, it was
detected that autistic children’s SOD (t=-11.945; p<0.05) and GSH-Px
(t=-10.865; p<0.05) activities in erythrocytes and GSH-Px (t=-13.251;
p<0.05) activities in plasma were significantly lower than normal controls.
These results showed that autistic children have low levels of activity of
blood antioxidant enzyme systems and raise the possibility that low levels of
antioxidant enzyme activities could play either a fundamental or modulating
role in the etiology of autism. Further studies considering different
parameters such as age, genetic, environmental and metabolic conditions which
could affect the activities of antioxidant enzymes are now required to
elucidate further the etiology of autism.