The enzymatic activities of SOD, CAT, and GPx, and the GSH redox status and lipid peroxidation levels were analyzed using spectrophotometric methods. Of all investigated antioxidants, only NAC decreased metal levels in the liver. Cd had little effect on oxidative stress parameters, while Cr showed a weak prooxidative effect. Cotreatment with TAU/LA/CUR/NAC and Cr significantly increased liver SOD activity.

Chromium induced kidney SOD and CAT, but all antioxidants lowered CAT activity. Cadmium reduced liver and increased kidney GSSG. NAC increased liver GSH, but the increase did not correlate with decrease in Cd. Curcumin given with Cd increased kidney and decreased liver lipid peroxidation, whereas TAU with Cr increased lipid peroxidation in both tissues. N-Acetylcysteine was the most effective

antioxidative agent, owing to its metal-decreasing function as well as to its effects on the GSH redox status. We believe that GSK2879552 nmr the investigated antioxidant substances which may have been involved in the reduction of Cr caused an increase in SOD activity and a decrease in CAT activity. Changes in the GSSG levels in both tissues might be an adaptive response to the prooxidative potential of Cd. Because of their respective tissue- and metal-dependent prooxidative effects, CUR and TAU deserve particular attention in regard to their use against metal toxicity, Cr in particular. JAK inhibitor (c) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 29: 129-137, 2014.”
“Background-Genetic studies in mouse and human suggest that kynureninase activity may influence blood pressure and renal function. The gene coding kynureninase (KYNU) is also located on chromosome band 2q14-q23, where a linkage

peak for essential hypertension was previously detected in the Chinese Han population.

Methods and Results-After having found no association with common polymorphisms, this study aimed to assess the role of 1 rare variant of KYNU, Arg188Gln, and kynureninase activity in relation to hypertension. Thirty-three of 1124 Chinese patients click here with hypertension were heterozygous for Arg188Gln, whereas only 14 of 1084 normotensive controls were heterozygous for Arg188Gln (188G1n allele frequency, 0.015 versus 0.006; P=0.0075). A genotype-discordant sibling-pair study was performed in another 924 individuals from 213 families, indicating that 188G1n carriers had higher systolic blood pressure (168.29 +/- 24.67 versus 139.00 +/- 12.82 mm Hg, P < 0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (105.50 +/- 14.08 versus 90.75 +/- 11.07 mm Hg, P = 0.001) than did Arg188 homozygous siblings. The Arg188Gln variant was found to be rarer in 2 other ethnic groups (3 heterozygous among 880 hypertensive French whites and 0 of 90 black Africans with hypertension). The kynureninase activity in plasma was correlated with blood pressure in subjects from hypertensive families (P < 0.05).