Natural dicarbonyls, which may be accumulated during oxidative stress in atherosclerosis (e.g. malondialdehyde) or carbonyl stress in diabetes mellitus (glyoxal and methylglyoxal) effectively inhibited the activities of commercial preparations of antioxidant enzymes: catalase, Cu,Zn-superoxide dismutase (Cu,Zn-SOD) and Se-contained glutathione peroxidase from human and bovine erythrocytes and also rat liver glutathione-S-transferase. After incubation of human erythrocytes with 10 mM of each investigated dicarbonyls the decrease of intracellular Cu,Zn-SOD was observed. The decreased activity of erythrocyte Cu,Zn-SOD was also detected in diabetic patients with carbohydrate metabolism disturbance but effective sugar-lowered therapy was accompanied by the increase of this enzyme activity. The increase of erythrocytes activity of Cu,Zn-SOD of diabetic patients theated with metformin (which may utilize methylglyoxal) was higher than in erythrocytase of diabetic patients subjected to traditional therapy.

We studied the effect of phenol antioxidant probucol on free radical oxidation of LDL isolated from blood plasma of healthy donors. Oxidation was induced by co-incubation of LDL with cultured peripheral blood monocyte-macrophages and human umbilical vein endothelial cells under conditions of ischemia-reperfusion. In addition, the effect of probucol therapy on oxidability of plasma LDL in CHD patients was examined. Probucol (0.1-10 microM) efficiently protected LDL from free radical oxidation in vitro and in vivo.