Protective role of germanium-132 against paraquat-induced oxidative stress in the livers of senescence-accelerated mice.

The effects of the synthetic antioxidant germanium (Ge-132) were studied on liver oxidant damage induced by paraquat (PQ) in senescence-accelerated mice (SAM). PQ administered intravenously to SAM-P/8 (susceptible) or SAM-R/1 (resistant) mice increased liver DNA strand breakage and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, indicators of oxidant damage. Ge-132 effectively blocked the PQ-induced effects on liver DNA strand breaks and MDA levels. In addition, Ge-132 significantly elevated the activities of hepatic superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase following PQ pretreatment. Histopathologically, Ge-132 inhibited PQ-induced hepatic mitochondrial injury in both strains, but more effectively in the susceptible strain. Data suggest that Ge-132 may be useful as an antioxidant in view of its ability to prevent PQ-induced hepatic oxidant injury.