Uric acid protects membranes and linolenic acid from ozone-induced oxidation.

Aqueous preparations of linolenic acid, bovine serum albumin, and bovine erythrocyte membrane fragments were bubbled with ozone in the presence or absence of uric acid. Ozonation of the membrane fragments or the bovine serum albumin did not result in protein degradation. After 15 min of ozonation, the absorbance of the thiobarbituric acid-reactive material increased by 0.34 in the linolenic acid preparation and by 0.08 in the suspension of membrane fragments. In the presence of uric acid, these changes in absorbance were reduced to 0.14 for the fatty acid and to 0.01 for the membrane fragments. This result indicates that uric acid protects lipids from ozone-induced oxidation.