Organic compounds present in airborne particles stimulate superoxide production and DNA fragmentation: role of NOX and xanthine oxidase in animal tissues.

Suspended particulate matter trigger the production of reactive oxygen species. However, most of the studies dealing with oxidative damage of airborne particles focus on the effects of individual compounds and not real mixtures. In order to study the enzymatic superoxide production resulting from the exposition to a complex mixture, we derived organic extracts from airborne particles collected daily in an urban area and exposed kidney, liver, and heart mammal tissues. After that, we measured DNA damage employing the comet assay. We observed that in every tissue, NADPH oxidase and xanthine oxidase were involved in O2 (-) production when they were exposed to the organic extracts, as the lucigenin's chemiluminescence decays when enzymes were inhibited. The same trend was observed with the percentage of cells with comets, since DNA damage was higher when they were exposed to same experimental conditions. Our data allow us to hypothesize that these enzymes play an important role in the oxidative stress produced by PAHs and that there is a mechanism involving them in the O2 (-)generation.