Oxidative stress in mouse brain exposed to lead

This study was carried out to investigate effects of developmental Pb-exposure on antioxidant enzyme activities of mice brain. BALB dams were exposed to 600 p.p.m. of Pb-acetate in drinking water during pregnancy and lactation. Pb-exposure presented significant increase of plasma and brain Pb and 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) concentrations of weaned pups. In Pb-exposed 21-day-old pups, activities of superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and glutathione reductase (GSH-Re) decreased significantly in hypothalamus, corpora quadrigemina and corpus striatum compared with Na-exposed pups. Regarding 70-day-old pups, Pb-exposure had different effects on antioxidant enzymes of the three brain regions. The activities of GSH-Px and GSH-Re in corpora quadrigemina and GSH-Re in hypothalamus of Pb-exposure group did not decrease significantly. That meant that the lead employed might make occurrence of long-term effect on the antioxidant enzymes possible. The result also implied a correlation between ALA and oxidative stress in mice brain. Based on these results, it seemed that oxidative stress because of decreased antioxidant function, induced by significant accumulation of ALA, might be the main mechanism involved in mice brain neurotoxicity induced by developmental Pb-exposure.