RAT URINARY CHEMILUMINESCENCE - EFFECT OF ETHANOL AND OR HEXACHLOROBENZENE UPTAKE/

Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) administration to rats induces porphyria cutan ea tarda, characterized by high levels of urinary porphyrins (>40 mu g /day) and accumulation of highly carboxylated porphyrins in liver (>15 mu g/g of tissue). Ethanol administration, under the conditions emplo yed, was not porphyrinogenic and was able to diminish some of the resp onses elicited by HCB. Furthermore, ethanol and/or HCB administration leads to organ disturbances that involve oxidative stress. We have mea sured the changes in urinary chemiluminescence (CL) levels, as part of a systematic evaluation of the metabolic alterations in rats chronica lly treated with ethanol and/or HCB. The results, that constitute the first set of urinary CL data obtained from an animal model system, ind icate that the measurement of the spontaneous urinary CL can constitut e a fast, simple and sensitive method to evaluate disturbances associa ted with oxidative stress. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.