Therapeutic Effect of Lecithinized Superoxide Dismutase on Pulmonary Emphysema

Ulcerative colitis (UC) involves intestinal mucosal damage in-duced by reactive oxygen species (ROS), in particular, super-oxide anion. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) catalyzes dismuta-tion of superoxide anion to hydrogen peroxide, which is subsequently detoxified by catalase. Lecithinized SOD (PC-SOD) is a new modified form of SOD that has overcome pre-vious clinical limitations of SOD. In this study, we examined the action of PC-SOD using an animal model of UC, dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis. DSS-induced colitis was amelio-rated by daily intravenous administration of PC-SOD. Unmod-ified SOD produced a similar effect but only at more than 30 times the concentration of PC-SOD. In vivo electron spin res-onance analysis confirmed that the increase in the colonic level of ROS associated with development of colitis was suppresse