2256 11 archive 2 disk0/00/00/22/56 2008-07-01 15:41:10 2008-07-01 15:41:10 2008-07-01 15:41:10 article show Looi, Mee Lee Noor Aini Abd Hamid Yasmin Anum Mohd Yusof Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Faculty of Medicine. Dept. of Biochemistry Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Faculty of Medicine. Dept. of Biochemistry Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Faculty of Medicine. Dept. of Biochemistry pub Q R none superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, aging, palmvitee An imbalance between production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and its elimination by antioxidant defense system in the body has been implicated for causes of aging and neurodegenerative diseases. This study was undertaken to determine the effect of aging on the status of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) in male Wistar rats and to evaluate the impact of palmvitee supplementation (70 % tocotrienol and 30 % tocopherol) on the antioxidant defense system. The study was conducted on young (3 months), adult (9 and 15 months) and aged (21 months) male Wistar rats fed with normal and vitamin E supplemented diets (30mg/kg rat weight/day). Low levels of SOD were found in adult rats (15 month-old: 2.90 ± 0.07 units/mg protein) and in old rats (21 month-old: 2.80 ± 0.10 units/mg protein) when compared to younger rats (3 and 9 month-old: 3.30 ± 0.16 and 3.40 ± 0.12 units/mg protein respectively). However aging had a different effect on GPx whereby an increase of GPx was observed from young to older rats with values of 0.0032 ± 0.19, 0.0071 ± 0.76, 0.0099 ± 0.50, 0.0062 ± 0.55 specific activity/mg protein for 3, 9, 15 and 21 month-old rats respectively. Supplementation with palmvitee decreased the activity of SOD in adult rats significantly when compared to non supplemented rats of the same age group, but it however did not have any effect on the activity of GPx except at the age of 15 month-old where its level was significantly lower than normal (non supplemented rats). In conclusion, palmvitee may have a protective role for both GPx and SOD by replacing or compensating their activities in rat liver. 2005 published Malaysian Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 12 1 Malaysian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 21-24 TRUE ISSN 1511-2616 http://ejum.fsktm.um.edu.my/ArticleInformation.aspx?ArticleID=607 1. Harman D. Aging: a theory based on free radical and radiation chemistry. J. Gerontol 1956; 11: 298-300 2. Harman D. The ageing process: major risk factor for disease and death. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 1981; 78: 7124- 7128. 3. Niwa Y. Free radicals invites death. Tokyo: Personal Care Co. Ltd. 1997. 4. 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