ANTIOXIDANT ERYTHROCYTE ENZYME-ACTIVITIES DURING ORAL CONTRACEPTION

Citation
C. Massafra et al., ANTIOXIDANT ERYTHROCYTE ENZYME-ACTIVITIES DURING ORAL CONTRACEPTION, Contraception, 47(6), 1993, pp. 591-596
Citations number
10
Categorie Soggetti
Obsetric & Gynecology
Journal title
ISSN journal
00107824
Volume
47
Issue
6
Year of publication
1993
Pages
591 - 596
Database
ISI
SICI code
0010-7824(1993)47:6<591:AEEDOC>2.0.ZU;2-F
Abstract
Nineteen healthy young women, non-smokers and of normal weight, used a combined oral contraceptive, consisting of 20 mug ethinylestradiol an d 150 mug desogestrel, for 9 cycles and were investigated before start ing oral contraceptive use, and during the 3rd, 6th and 9th cycle. In all cases, the antioxidant erythrocyte enzyme activities, superoxide-d ismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione-peroxidase (GSH-Px), we re determined. Pyruvate-kinase (PK) activity was also considered as a predictable index of the age and constancy of the erythrocyte populati on. A steady, significant increase in GSH-Px and CAT enzyme activities was found. No significant variations were found in SOD and PK enzyme levels. These findings clearly suggest that the use of combined oral c ontraceptives leads to an increase in antioxidant defenses. The specif ic physiological and biochemical mechanisms of this response merit fur ther investigation.