Abstract: The aim of the present study was to estimate the effect of age and gender
on the levels of primary and secondary antioxidants and Malondialdehyde
in red blood cells of the selected Schizophrenia patients. In our present
study, the activities of six free radical scavenging enzymes (super oxide
dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT)), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), glutathione
Transferase (GST), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), Caeruloplasmin
ferroxidase (Cp) and the level of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances
(TBARS) as an index of lipid per oxidation were analyzed in the different
age groups of schizophrenia patients. Role of gender was also analyzed
in both schizophrenia and control subjects. It was observed from the results
that there was a significant increase in erythrocyte MDA levels and activity
of SOD and a significant decrease in erythrocyte CAT,GSH- Px, Cp-ferroxidase
and G6PD levels in patients with schizophrenia, when compared to controls
(p<0.01). The results have also shown that among different age groups,
highly significant oxygen free radical production, evidenced by increased
levels of MDA and decreased levels of antioxidant enzymes activity was
found in adult and elderly schizophrenia patients, which supports the
more pronounced oxidative stress in adult and elderly schizophrenia patients
when compared to young schizophrenia patients. The statistically more
significant increase (p<0.001) in the activity of SOD in elderly schizophrenia
subjects may be a compensatory regulation in response to increased oxidative
stress in elders. The decreased concentrations of the CAT, GSH-Px, G6PD
and Cp-ferroxidase support the hypothesis that lipid per oxidation is
an important causative factor in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. These
data reveal that antioxidant defense mechanisms might be impaired a lot
in normal elderly people and schizophrenia patients with age group above
30 (i.e., adults and elders). As for as gender concerned, we observed
a significant raise in the levels MDA, SOD and significant decrease in
the levels of selected antioxidant enzymes in schizophrenia male and female
subjects when compared with the respective control male and female subjects
(p<0.01). But we found statistically more significant increase in the
levels of MDA and highly significant decrease in the levels of the secondary
antioxidant enzymes G6PD and Cp ferroxidase (p<0.001) were found in
schizophrenia males when compared with schizophrenia females. Supplementation
of antioxidants may prevent further oxidative injury in elderly schizophrenia
patients. |