title: Antioxidant effect of beta-carotene on hypoxia induced oxidative stress in male albino rats.
abstract: Hypoxia is known to induce oxidative stress in organisms leading to tissue injury. In the present study beta-carotene (BC) given at 10 mg/kg body weight (BW) in reducing the oxidative stress induced by hypoxia was evaluated on male albino rats. Hypoxia exposure caused an increase in malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in plasma and tissues, a concurrent decrease in blood glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), plasma protein and plasma BC content. Hemoglobin concentration, Red blood corpuscles (RBC) and White blood corpuscles (WBC) count were also increased under hypoxia. BC supplementation reversed the trend, inducing a significant decrease (P<0.05) in MDA and subsequent increase in plasma and tissue GSH levels in animals exposed to hypoxia. Blood GPx and plasma protein also increased significantly in BC supplemented animals. BC supplementation did not alter the changes in Hb concentration, RBC and WBC count. BC has potent antioxidant activities in reducing the oxidative stress induced by hypobaric hypoxia.
authors.affiliation: Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences, Lucknow Road, Timarpur, New Delhi 110054, India. sarada_sagi@yahoo.com
authors.forename: S K S
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Sarada
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dipti
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Anju
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pauline
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Kain
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sairam
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ilavazhagan
authors.forename: Devendra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Selvamurthy
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005978:Glutathione / Q000378:metabolism; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism*; D015227:Lipid Peroxidation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D019207:beta Carotene / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D019207:beta Carotene; D005978:Glutathione