ANTIOXIDANT LEVELS IN THE NASAL-MUCOSA OF PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC SINUSITIS AND HEALTHY CONTROLS

Background: Imbalances between oxidant formation and antioxidative def ense are associated with the pathogenesis of several chronic inflammat ory disorders of the respiratory tract. Therefore, a role of oxidative stress in chronic upper airway tract infections can be anticipated. O bjective: To determine if patients with chronic sinusitis demonstrate a reduced antioxidative tissue status. Design: The levels of 3 biologi cally important antioxidants, reduced glutathione and oxidized glutath ione, uric acid, and vitamin E, were determined biochemically in mucos al biopsy specimens from the uncinate process of patients with chronic sinusitis and healthy controls. Subjects: Inflamed mucosa samples wer e obtained from 9 patients with chronic sinusitis during functional en doscopic sinus surgery. Normal mucosa samples were collected from 10 h ealthy controls during surgery for nasal obstruction. Results: The dat a (presented as mean+/-SD) show a significant reduction (P less than o r equal to.05) of reduced glutathione levels (0.3+/-0.1 mu mol/g wet w eight) and uric acid levels (2.7+/-0.4 mu mol/g wet weight) in mucosa samples obtained from patients with chronic sinusitis compared with he althy controls (0.6+/-0.2 and 3.4+/-0.6 mu mol/g wet weight, respectiv ely). No difference was found in oxidized glutathione (24+/-8 vs 25+/- 15 nmol/g wet weight) and vitamin E (20.5+/-7.9 vs 22.5+/-6.9 nmol/g w et weight) levels between both groups. Conclusions: Decreased levels o f both reduced glutathione and uric acid in patients with chronic sinu sitis lead to a diminished antioxidant defense, which may be associate d with the pathogenesis of upper respiratory tract disorders. The vita min E level seems less important. This finding may offer perspectives for pharmacotherapeutic intervention with antioxidants.