IntroductionDiabetes mellitus is the most common endocrine metabolic disorder, affecting about 170 million people worldwide. 1 Defects in glucose metabolizing machinery and consistent efforts of the physiological system to correct the imbalance in glucose metabolism place an over exertion on the endocrine system. Continuing deterioration of endocrine control exacerbates the metabolic disturbances and leads primarily to hyperglycemia 2 . Prolonged exposure to elevated glucose induces both repeated acute changes in intracellular metabolism and cumulative long-term changes in the structure and function of macromolecules. 3
The aim of this study was to investigate lipid peroxidation as evidenced by thiobarbutric acid reactive substances (TBARS), ceruloplasmin (Ce), CD 4+ cells counts and antioxidant, and micronutrients status in HIV infection and AIDS patients. The level of plasma and erythrocyte TBARS, plasma ceruloplasmin was markedly increased in the AIDS patients when compared to HIV infection and healthy control subjects. We observed a significant reduction in CD 4+ cell count in HIV/AIDS patients when compared to control subjects. The activities of erythrocyte antioxidants superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione S-transferase (GST), and reduced glutathione (GSH), were significantly decreased in AIDS patients when compared with HIV infection and healthy subjects. Significantly low levels of plasma GSH, vitamin A (β-carotene), vitamin C, vitamin E, serum uric acid, albumin, selenium and zinc were also observed in AIDS patients when compared with HIV positive patients and control subjects. The study highlights the occurrence of lipid peroxidation and possible breakdown of antioxidant status in HIV/AIDS patients, which may subsequently increase the possibility of poor immunity. The antioxidant status was progressively depleted in HIV infected persons as the disease progressed from a symptomatic state to AIDS.
Oxidative stress plays an important role in malignant transformation and is postulated to be associated with increased lipid peroxidation. We determined the effects of chronic cigarette smoking on lipid peroxidation and antioxidant status in 100 male patients with gastric cancer and an equal number of age-matched healthy control subjects. The mean (SD) level of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) was higher in plasma (healthy non-smokers 3.1 [0.2]; healthy smokers 4.6 [0.2]; gastric cancer non-smokers 6.5 [1.0]; gastric cancer smokers 8.9 [3.1]) and erythrocytes (3.3 [0.6]; 4.6 [0.1]; 8.3 [0.9]; 13.2 [5.1]) from gastric cancer patients when compared with control subjects. TBARS level was higher in smokers than non-smoking gastric cancer patients. The activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione-S-treansferase, reduced glutathione, and vitamins A, E and C were decreased in gastric cancer patients who were smokers as compared to other groups (p<0.001). Thus, there occurs lipid peroxidation and possible breakdown of antioxidant status in cigarette smoking, which may increase the risk of gastric cancer.
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