INDICATORS OF ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY IN HORSES INFECTED WITH EQUINE ANEMIA VIRUS

Abstract: Assessing the activity of the main antioxidant enzymes – superoxid-dismutase (SOD), cathalase and the general peroxidaze activity- in parallel with the lipidic oxidative level and the concentration of the total blood lipids, the goal was to establish the presence or the absence of the oxidative stress at cellular level, because of the viral infection in the affected animals. Blood samples were collected from the investigated horses (n=16) to assess the activity of the cathalase, peroxidase and superoxid-dismutase. These were compared with the lipidic oxidative level and the concentration of the total blood lipids. Based on the obtained results it can be sustained that the enzymatic activity of – superoxid-dismutase (SOD) markedly decreases in the animals with anemia compared to the healthy ones, while the cathalase activity decreses in the limits of normality in these animals. The decrease of the antioxidant enzyme level leads to the increase of the superoxide anion radicals and of the hydrogen peroxide (SRO) respectively of the products resulted trough the oxidative degradation of the lipids, proteins and nucleic acids in the analyzed pathological samples, leading to a persistent pro-oxidant state, at cellular level, promoting the settling of the oxidative stress. The changes of the oxidative metabolism are able to induce changes in the immune reactivity, reducing the in vitro blast transforming activity and the mytogenic response, activity that could be reset using antioxidant vegetal extracts