Luminol and lucigenin amplified chemiluminescence and lipidperoxidation with brain microsomes from rats during...

The chemiluminescence (CL) amplifiers luminol (LM) and lucigenin (LC) react with different reactive oxygen species (ROS) in dependence on the ROS generating system used. With liver microsomes LMCL indicates predominantly superoxide anion radicals, whereas LCCL is mainly a measure for hydroxyl radical formation or of reactive organic radicals. With brain microsomes only LCCL, but not LMCL could be measured. For both brain microsomes from newborn (both sexes) and 60 day-old (male) rats LCCL is dependent on protein and NADPH concentration, activity in newborns being only 15% compared with young adult rats. As compared with liver microsomes 10-fold higher protein concentrations are needed to obtain comparable LCCL, whereas the NADPH demand is the same as with liver. A distinct ontogenetic development was demonstrated: low activities in the fetus, in newborn and 10-day-old rat are followed by higher activities with increasing age, after a maximum at an age of 60 days a decline was observed. Microsomal lipidperoxidation (LPO) was measured as formation of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and was also dependent on protein and NADPH concentration. Unexpectedly, LPO with brain microsomes from newborn rats did not show any developmental variation.