Variations in antioxidant status in ischemic stroke: A case control study in Indian population

Abstract

An imbalance between the levels of oxidants and antioxidants, a state of oxidative stress, leads to production of Reactive Oxygen Species. Overproduction of these species plays a crucial role in pathogenesis of ischemic stroke. In view of this, we aimed to investigate the markers of oxidative stress along with blood cellular components in ischemic stroke patients and healthy controls. Blood samples of 68 patients and 52 aged-matched controls were analyzed for oxidative stress markers such as glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx) and reduced glutathione (GSH) were assayed along with catalase and superoxide dismutase (SOD). Ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) of plasma of all samples was also evaluated along with complete blood count. In patients, the activities of the oxidative stress marker enzyme, GSHPx, was found to be significantly elevated (P ≤ 0.01), with significantly low levels of GSH (P ≤ 0.01), while the activities of catalase and SOD were found unaltered. The total antioxidant capacity of plasma measured as FRAP was also significantly higher (P ≤ 0.05). Red blood cells (RBCs) and eosinophils counts were found to be significantly lower (P ≤ 0.05 and P ≤ 0.01, respectively) while that of monocytes were significantly higher (P ≤ 0.01) in comparison with the controls. Our results showed that the antioxidant status of ischemic stroke patients was better than the control subjects, which may have been due to the compensatory mechanism being activated due to oxidative stress.