Protective effect of the serum against cellular damage by active oxygen in culture

It has been known that there is remarkable antioxidant activity in the human sera, especially those in inflammation and pregnancy. In the present investigation, various sera were examined for the antioxidant activity with the aid of cultured cells. It was recognized that the serum added to the culture medium protected cells from harmful action of active oxygen generated by a hypoxanthine-xanthine oxidase (HX-XO) system. The inflammatory serum has the greatest protective power, followed by pregnant and normal sera in this order. The antioxidant activity of the serum was inversely related to the Fe concentrations. The addition of ceruloplasmin with SOD action could not inhibit the tissue damage, while addition of catalase or hemoglobin with catalase activity could inhibit it. The protective effect was valid against not only HX-XO, but also H2O2. These results show that the chief active oxygen to cause cell damage is H2O2 and the scavenger antioxidants in the serum are hemoglobin and catalase.