Nitric Oxide and Electrogenic Metals (Ca, Na, K) in Epidermal Cells

Using atomic emission spectrometry and EPR analysis metal-ligand homeostasis (MLH) has been studied in epidermal cells of 954 liquidators of the Chernobyl accident and 947 healthy individuals. A possible association of the redox status with the quantitative changes in the MLH, which could be used as discriminators of oxidative/nitrosative stress, attracts special interest. Characteristic features of oxidative stress mainly related to electrogenic metals (Ca, K, Na), were found not only among the liquidators examined, but also in some healthy individuals (18.1%); this suggests the presence of oxidative/nitrosative stress of non-radiation origin. Correlation between intracellular production of nitric oxide (NO) with quantitative changes in the electrogenic metals may indicate the possible involvement of NO in the generation of an electric potential of the cell.