The administration of desferrioxamine to paraquat-intoxicated rats.

We investigated the effect of desferrioxamine, an effective iron chelator, on animal survival and on plasma vitamin E levels after administration of paraquat doses close to the LD50. Male Sprague-Dawley rats received 20 mg paraquat/kg followed by 300 mg desferrioxamine/kg/d given ip over 2 d at 3 equal intervals. The results suggested that desferrioxamine prevented the paraquat-induced depletion of vitamin E, but did not improve the mortality due to paraquat. In ancillary in vitro experiments with a paraquat-based free radical system, where glutathione reductase and NADPH were used as sources of enzymic activity for the redox cycling of paraquat, desferrioxamine effectively prevented the formation of hydroxyl radicals, as determined by deoxyribose degradation.