Mucosal antioxidant defense is not impaired in ulcerative colitis

Background/Aims: In this study, mucosal antioxidant defense was investigate d in the biopsy samples from 12 patients with active ulcerative colitis and from 13 patients under remission. Methodology: Biopsy samples obtained from healthy colon parts of the same s ubjects were used as control. Results: No changes were observed between superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and catalase enzyme activities of control or inflamed biopsy sa mples. However, antioxidant potential values were found to be higher and ma londialdehyde levels lower in inflamed samples compared with controls. Conclusions: Our results show that in contrast to previous suggestions, muc osal antioxidant defense is not impaired in ulcerative colitis.