3 WEEKS EXPOSURE OF RATS TO DEAROMATIZED WHITE SPIRIT MODIFIES INDEXES OF OXIDATIVE STRESS IN BRAIN, KIDNEY, AND LIVER

The present study was undertaken in order to investigate whether dearo matized white spirit induces indices of oxidative stress in subcellula r fractions of hemisphere, hippocampus, kidney and liver tissue of rat s exposed to 0, 400 and 800 ppm 6 hr/day, 7 days a week for 3 weeks. T he results show that white spirit is a strong in vivo inducer of oxida tive stress in subcellular fractions of brain, kidney and liver. In th e liver there was a statistically significant increase in the rate of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and a decrease in glutamine s ynthetase activity. In the kidney there was a statistically significan t decrease in the rate of ROS generation. In the hemisphere there was a statistically significant increase in the level of reduced glutathio ne. In the hippocampus there was a statistically significant increase in the rate of ROS generation. However, in vitro addition of dearomati zed white spirit had no effect on the rate of cerebrocortical P2 fract ion ROS generation. The results suggest that cumulative oxidative dama ge may be an underlying mechanism of dearomatized white spirit-induced neurotoxicity and that various regions of the brain may respond diffe rently.