Erythrocyte superoxide dismutase and catalase activities in red cell infected with plasmodium vivax.

ABSTRACT

It has been shown that erythrocytes infected with asexual forms of malarial parasites are more sensitive to oxidant strees than normal red cells. Many studies reported a great alterations of SOD and catalase levels in red cells of subjects infected with different species of plasmodium indication the significant role of oxidant stress in the host defence mechanism against the parasites. In order to study these effects in patients with P.vivax, SOD and catalase activites were determined in red cells of 40 patients in comparison to 40 normal human subjects. Both mean erythrocyte SOD and catalase values in the patient group showed no significant difference from those of the normal group. There was a direct relationship between parasitemia and SOD cativity. AII these findings indicated that P.vivax parasites did not nave any effect on these enzymes of the host erythrocytes. It was therefore possible that the increased susceptibility of P.vivax infected red cells to oxidant damage was not a result of reduced functioning of the SOD and catalase. These findings could also explain the reasons why the symptoms of patients with P.vivax were less severe than those of patients with P.falciparum.