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| Author(s): |
Larissa Helena Lôbo Tôrres
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Conjunto das Químicas (IQ e FCF) (CQ/DBDCQ) |
| Defense date: | 2009-08-25 |
| Examining board members: |
Tânia Marcourakis;
Ana Paula de Melo Loureiro;
Alex Christian Manhães
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| Advisor: | Tânia Marcourakis |
| Abstract | |
Cigarette\'s smoke is composed of more than 4.700 substances, many of them are toxic. The central nervous system (CNS) has few antioxidant defenses, is rich in easily oxidable lipids and contains high levels of transition metals which are involved in the formation of free radicals. There are evidences that tobacco smoke causes changes in the antioxidant enzymes in adult rodents, but little is known about its effects during CNS development. Thus, the aim of this work was to evaluate the possible effects of cigarettes smoke in the CNS of young mice. BALB/c mice were exposed to a mixture of mainstream and sidestream smoke of cigarette (Souza Cruz Red Derby) in a polypropylene chamber attached to a Venturi system. Besides acute exposure, performed at the 18th day of life, the animals were exposed from the 5th day of life for 13 or 35 days, 2 hours a day, 7 days in a week. The animals were then euthanized by cervical dislocation, immediately or three hours after the last exposure. The determinations of enzymatic activities of glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, glutathione S-transferase, and the quantification of malonaldehyde (MDA) and 3-nitrotyrosine in cerebellum, frontal cortex, striatum, hippocampus and hypothalamus were performed. Our results indicate that the CNS in development is susceptible to cigarettes smoke. Alterations in antioxidant enzymes in different brain structures were detected immediately after the last exposure suggesting differences in sensitivity of different areas to cigarette\'s smoke. However, these disturbances are not persistent, as most of them disappeared three hours after exposure. Cerebellum seems to be the more resistant structure, while frontal cortex and striatum the most sensitive. Enzyme changes in frontal cortex were more persistent and there was an increase of MDA only in the acute group and euthanasia 3 hours after exposure, whereas in cerebellum, striatum and hippocampus, MDA increased only in acute group and immediately euthanasia after exposure. These results suggest a delayed response of the frontal cortex and a possible adaptation of tissues to xenobiotics. It is important to point out that euthanasia performed immediately after chronic exposure to cigarette smoke not only reflect the effect of the last exposure, since the pattern found in the modification of enzymes and in the determination of MDA was different from that observed after acute exposure. (AU) | |