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1. In nonanesthetized rabbits temporal occlusion of the abdominal aorta was used to induce oxidative stress in the lower part of the body including distal segments of the spinal cord. 2. Spinal cord samples were taken from the animals exposed to 25-min aortic occlusion (AO) or to occlusion followed by 1- or 2-hr reperfusion (AO/R1 or AO/R2, respectively) or from sham-operated animals (C). The presence of free radicals (FR) in the spinal cord samples frozen in liquid N2 was assessed by ESR spectroscopy without spin trapping. Moreover, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and conjugated diene (CD) levels were measured in the samples. 3. In the AO group FR were detected in the spinal cord regions close to the occlusion (lower thoracic and distal segments) along with a decrease in SOD activity. The calculated g value (g = 2.0291) indicated that the paramagnetic signal recorded might be attributed to superoxide radicals. FR were absent in the AO/R1 group. Concurrently, the SOD activity revealed a significant tendency to return to the control level. FR appeared again in the AO/R2 group, mostly in the upper and middle lumbar regions, along with a decrease in SOD activity. No sample from the C group revealed FR. A significant increase in CD levels was observed in the thoracolumbar region only in the AO/R2 group. The temporary absence of FR in the AO/R1 group suggests activation of defense antioxidant mechanisms (e.g., specific enzymatic systems such as SOD), which might have been exhausted later. 4. Changes in SOD activity similar to those observed in the thoracolumbar region, though less noticeable, occurred in the obviously noncompromised tissue (upper cervical region). This points to a kind of generalized response of the animal to aortic occlusion. 5. Direct ESR spectroscopy revealed the presence of FR as well as their time course in the spinal cord during the early phase of ischemia/reperfusion injury and the inverse relationship between FR and SOD activity.