Mucosal antioxidant defense is not impaired in ulcerative colitis.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: In this study, mucosal antioxidant defense was investigated in the biopsy samples from 12 patients with active ulcerative colitis and from 13 patients under remission.

METHODOLOGY

Biopsy samples obtained from healthy colon parts of the same subjects were used as control.

RESULTS

No changes were observed between superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and catalase enzyme activities of control or inflamed biopsy samples. However, antioxidant potential values were found to be higher and malondialdehyde levels lower in inflamed samples compared with controls.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results show that in contrast to previous suggestions, mucosal antioxidant defense is not impaired in ulcerative colitis.