Studying the relationship between oxidative stress malondialdehyde and ß-carotene in the serum of asthmatic patients in Basrah Governorate-Iraq

Abstract EN

The present study was designed to evaluate the relationship between ß-carotene as antioxidant with malondialdehyde (oxidative stress) in the serum of asthmatic patients.

In this study, a total number of (50) asthmatic patients (24 males, 26 females) visiting Allergic and Asthma Medical Center in Basrah city were involved and according to age, sex, severity, smoking and family history.

From each patient serum blood samples were collected to estimate the malondialdehyde (MDA) and ßcarotene.

In addition, (50) healthy subjects were investigated as a control group.

We found that a highly significant increase lipid peroxidation measured as MDA (p< 0.01) for all asthmatic patients as compared to healthy control.

Also the (MDA) serum level increases significantly (p< 0.05) with age and severity, while a highly significant (p< 0.01) is with smoker patients and positive family history.

The study also revealed a statistically significant decrease (p< 0.01) in ß-carotene serum level in all asthmatic patients as compared to healthy control.

In regard to age and severity, serum ß-carotene level decreased significantly (p< 0.05) while with smoker patients and positive family history a highly significant decrease (p< 0.01).

There were no significant changes in the (MDA) and ß-carotene levels between male and female patients.

Moreover, a negative correlation was also observed between ßcarotene with (MDA) level in the patient group with these variables.

In conclusion, asthmatic patients suffer a high degree of reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation causing considerable oxidative stress indicated by high level oxidant (MDA) and low level of the antioxidant ß-carotene.