Plasma malondialdehyde and catalase levels before and after electroconvulsive therapy

Abstract

Molecules that serve in biologic systems as electron acceptor are referred to as "oxidants" or "tree radicals". Oxida-tive stress can be considered as a disturbance in the pro-oxidant - antioxidant balance in favor of the pro-oxidant.. Malondialdehyde (MDA) is a cleavage product of fatty acid peroxidation. The antioxidant defence is largely provided by overall enzymes (e.g. superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, catalase, glucose-6- phosphate dehydrogenase etc.) which tend to neutralize the oxidants (O2~, superoxide anion; HO2, perhydroxyl radical; H2O2, hydrogen peroxide; OH', hydroxyl radical etc). In order to evaluate the effect of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on antioxidant enzyme status and lipid peroxidation, we measured the levels of MDA and activities of catalase in J 5 patients before and after ECT. MDA levels decreased and catalase levels increased significantly after ECT. We concluded that ECT shows antioxidant activity with an unknown mechanism.