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©The Author(s) 2005. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 21, 2005; 11(31): 4875-4878
Published online Aug 21, 2005. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v11.i31.4875
Published online Aug 21, 2005. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v11.i31.4875
Ursodeoxycholic acid and superoxide anion
Predrag Ljubuncic, Omar Abu-Salach, Arieh Bomzon, Department of Pharmacology, Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Correspondence to: Arieh Bomzon, Department of Pharmacology, Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Efron Street, Po Box 9649, Haifa 31096, Israel. bomzon@tx.technion.ac.il
Telephone: +972-4-8295259 Fax: +972-4-8524978
Received: December 24, 2004
Revised: January 10, 2005
Accepted: January 13, 2005
Published online: August 21, 2005
Revised: January 10, 2005
Accepted: January 13, 2005
Published online: August 21, 2005
Abstract
AIM: To investigate the ability of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) to scavenge superoxide anion (O2-).
METHODS: We assessed the ability of UDCA to scavenge (O2-) generated by xanthine-xanthine oxidase (X-XO) in a cell-free system and its effect on the rate of O2--induced ascorbic acid (AA) oxidation in hepatic post-mitochondrial supernatants.
RESULTS: UDCA at a concentration as high as 1 mmol/L did not impair the ability of the X-XO system to generate O2-, but could scavenge O2- at concentrations of 0.5 and 1 mmol/L, and decrease the rate of AA oxidation at a concentration of 100 µmol/L.
CONCLUSION: UDCA can scavenge O2-, an action that may be beneficial to patients with primary biliary cirrhosis.
Keywords: Ursodeoxycholic acid; Superoxide anion; Antioxidant