Effect of chlorine dioxide and metabolites on glutathione dependent system in rat, mouse and chicken blood.

Chlorine dioxide (Cl02) has been proposed as an alternative disinfectant to chlorine to avoid formation of organohalides. Cl02 and metabolites, chlorite (Cl0-2) and chlorate (Cl0-3) in drinking water produced decreases in rat and chicken blood GSH. The GSH dependent system was studied in rat and chicken blood after chronic treatment for 6 months with CL02 (0, 1, 10, 100, 1000 MG/L), Cl0-2 or Cl0-3 (10, 100 mg/l) in drinking water. There was a 60% increase in GSH reductase in the Cl02 treatment groups of rats and chickens. A similar increase was shown in rats treated with Cl0-2 but with Cl0-3 no change was observed. GSH peroxidase was without change in rat but chickens drinking 1000 mg/l Cl02 had decreased activity. Catalase was significantly higher than control in rat and chicken in the 1000 mg/l groups. However, catalase activity was decreased in rat treated with Cl0-2 and at the same time that GSH was decreased. These studies support the view that catalase is the first line of defense against the oxidative stress of Cl02 in rat and chicken erythrocytes.