Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and neutrophil infiltration in intestinal ischaemia-revascularization

SOD is the main detoxifying enzyme of OFRs which have been mainly purported to participate in ischaemia revascularization lesions. A study was made of the behaviour of SOD during ischaemia and the response to pharmacological doses of SOD in Wistar rats in which ischaemia was induced by 90 min of clamping and followed by revascularization. SOD levels were determined in the intestinal wall, evaluating the degree of infiltration of neutrophils, leucocytes and monocytes by immunohistochemical methods. Ischaemia led to a significant decrease in intestinal wall SOD levels (p = 0.003). The administration of pharmacological doses of SOD was observed to improve survival of the animals (p = 0.001) and significantly decreased the infiltration of leucocytes only during revascularization measured by MPO and LCA. Beneficial effects of SOD could be explained by its effect as scavenger of OFRs and by its action on the neutrophil infiltration.