Doxorubicin toxicity to the skin: possibility of protection with antioxidants enriched yeast.

The possibility of skin protection against doxorubicin toxicity was examined after oral antioxidative pretreatment of the rats with yeast supplemented with selenium and vitamins E, C and A for 15 days. The activity and level of antioxidative defense components were monitored in the skin and blood 48 h after i.v. applied doxorubicin. In the blood, increased glutathione peroxidase activity in the erythrocytes, and amounts of vitamin E and glutathione in the plasma were found after the antioxidative treatment. It also led to an increase of the reductive capacity in the skin (increased thioredoxin reductase activity and reduced glutathione level). Doxorubicin alone, depleted reductive capacity, i.e. decreased the activity of thioredoxin reductase in the skin, as well as the content of reduced glutathione both in the skin and blood plasma. Depletion of reductive capacity represents one of the first harmful doxorubicin effects to the skin at the time when the changes of other antioxidative enzyme activities were not detectable. Reductive capacity in the skin of animals given antioxidative pretreatment was maintained elevated upon doxorubicin application in comparison with the corresponding control. Oral supplementation with antioxidants thus prevents toxic effects of doxorubicin in the skin and may contribute to the alleviation of its secondary cytotoxicity during the chemotherapy.