A comparative study of free radicals in vertebrates--II. Non-enzymatic antioxidants and oxidative stress.

1. The three main non-enzymatic endogenous soluble antioxidants and three estimators of oxidative stress were measured in the liver, lung and brain of seven animal species of different vertebrate classes. 2. The more concentrated antioxidant was GSH, followed by ascorbate and finally by uric acid. Liver showed higher levels of GSH and uric acid than the other two organs in the majority of the species. 3. GSSG/GSH ratio was highest in lung, probably due to the high pO2 prevalent in the tissue. Nevertheless, this did not result in higher tissue peroxidation, suggesting that the lung antioxidants are capable of coping with a high tissue pO2. 4. Tissue peroxidation was maximal in the brain when assayed by the TBA test, but this was not confirmed by HPLC of malondialdehyde (MDA). HPLC resulted in much lower MDA values than TBA.