Markers of antioxidant defence system and lipid peroxidation in peripheral blood of female patients with chronic idiopathic urticaria.

Oxidative stress is an important event in lesional skin of patients with chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU). In the present study, we assessed blood oxidant/antioxidant status of patients suffering from CIU with positive response to autologous serum skin test (ASST) and with negative ASST, to improve our understanding of biological processes and the part of oxidative stress in this disease. Activities of manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), copper-zinc superoxide dismutase (Cu/ZnSOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX), and catalase (CAT) as indices of enzymatic antioxidant capacity, as well as malondialdehyde (MDA) level as a maker of lipid peroxidation were measured in plasma and erythrocytes from 14 CIU female patients showing positive ASST, 31 CIU female patients with negative ASST and in 19 sex- and age-matched healthy subjects. The antioxidant enzyme activity in plasma and in erythrocytes did not differ significantly among the three groups. Also, the plasma and erythrocytes MDA levels were similar in the three groups. Based on our results, it seems that systemic activity of the enzymatic antioxidants (CuZn/SOD, MnSOD, GSH-Px, and CAT) as well as level of lipid peroxidation determined by MDA may not be increased in the course of immune-inflammatory processes associated with CIU. We also suggest that the systemic oxidant/antioxidant status of CIU patients, showing positive response to ASST, may not be different from that of CIU patients with negative ASST.