Bilirubin is oxidized in rats treated with endotoxin and acts as a physiological antioxidant synergistically with ascorbic acid in vivo.

We examined the possibility that bilirubin physiologically acts as an antioxidant by using scurvy-prone ODS-od/od rats treated with endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide: LPS). Recently, bilirubin oxidative metabolites were isolated from human urine and named biotripyrrin-a and biotripyrrin-b. The LPS injection markedly increased bilirubin oxidative metabolites in urine of rats fed an ascorbic acid-free diet. This increase was supressed by feeding an adequate amount of ascorbic acid, a physiological antioxidant. the concentrations of biotripyrrin-a and -b in urine collected 6.5-10 h after the LPS injection were lower in rats fed an ascorbic acid-supplemented diet than in rats fed an ascorbic acid-free diet. Moreover, feeding with ascorbic acid suppressed the elevation of hepatic mRNA level of heme oxygenase-1, the rate-limiting enzyme of bilirubin biosynthesis, in rats injected with LPS. These findings suggest that bilirubin is oxidized in rats treated with LPS and acts as a physiological antioxidant synergistically with ascorbic acid in vivo.