title: Oxidative stress in chronic cardiopathy associated with Chagas disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Chagas disease is characterized by chronic inflammation similar to autoimmune diseases. The imbalance between prooxidant and antioxidant defenses is known as oxidative stress, and is often associated with inflammatory processes of many diseases.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present work measured some components of the antioxidant system present in the blood of four groups of patients in different stages of chronic Chagas heart disease (n=10 each group), according to the modified Los Andes clinical-hemodynamic classification. Each group of chagasic patients was compared with four groups of healthy subjects, and chagasic group IV was compared to group V, characterized by rheumatic cardiac disease, giving a total of 90 subjects. Antioxidant enzymes including superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione S-transferase (GST), and the contents of reduced (GSH), oxidized (GSSG) and total glutathione (TG) were assayed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  SOD, CAT and GR activities showed essentially no differences among the four groups, however, intraerythrocytic GSH concentrations showed decreased values parallel to the progression of the disease. In addition, the glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities were higher in groups III and V and lower in groups I, II and IV, also suggesting an antioxidant depletion with progression of the disease. In contrast, except for SOD and CAT activities, patients from group V showed a generally higher antioxidant capacity compared to the chagasic group IV.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results indicate a general increase of oxidative stress parallel to the progression of Chagas disease.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecologia e Zoologia, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Trindade, Florianópolis, 88040-900, Brazil.
authors.forename: Tiago Bittencourt
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.forename: Roberto Coury
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Pedrosa
authors.forename: Danilo Wilhelm
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Filho
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000032:analysis*; D002598:Chagas Cardiomyopathy / Q000097:blood* / Q000378:metabolism*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018384:Oxidative Stress
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants