Changes in tissue antioxidant enzyme activities and lipid peroxides in endotoxin-induced multiple organ failure.

Intravenous administration of bacterial endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide: LPS) induces shock and disseminated intravascular coagulation in rats. Our report here shows that LPS-administered rats (10 mg/100 g) develop tissue injuries and functional disorders in multiple vital organs. In the present study, we investigated changes in tissue antioxidant enzyme activities, neutrophil sequestration, and lipid peroxides in multiple organs (lung, stomach, small intestine for antioxidant enzyme activities and neutrophil sequestration; lung, stomach, small intestine, liver, abdominal aorta for lipid peroxides) of LPS-treated rats. LPS-treated animals morphologically revealed pulmonary interstitial edema, alveolar hemorrhage, and mucosal hemorrhage in the small intestine 45 min after LPS administration. Blood samples withdrawn from LPS-treated animals exhibited increases in serum amylase, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, and transaminase levels up to 180 min post-LPS infusion. LPS-treated animals showed a significant increase in tissue myeloperoxidase (MPO) activities of the lung, but not of the small intestine and stomach 45 min after LPS infusion. Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) in the lung, small intestine, stomach, liver, and abdominal aorta significantly increased at 45 min post-LPS-infusion. Tissue superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities of the LPS-treated animals demonstrated a significant decrease in the lung, which suffered from severe insults and neutrophil sequestration; no significant change in the small intestine, which suffered from morphological insults without neutrophil sequestration, and a significant increase in the stomach, which showed no histological impairment, at 180 min post-LPS administration. Glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) activities of the lung and small intestine showed no significant change in LPS-treated rats, while those of the stomach revealed a marked increase.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)