Abstract
Dibromoacetonitrile (DBAN) is a disinfection by-product following chlorination of drinking water. Epidemiological studies indicate that it might present a potential hazard to human health. DBAN was previously found to induce oxidative stress in rat stomach as manifested by perturbation of some enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidant parameters. Therefore, we have investigated the oxidative stress possibly induced by DBAN in mouse stomach and possible protection by melatonin (MLT) as a free radical scavenger. In a dose-response study, mice were administered a single oral dose of DBAN (30, 60 and 120
mg
kg
−1) and were sacrificed after 1
h. DBAN significantly reduced glutathione (GSH) content that was somehow dose-related, and inhibited glutathione-
S-transferase (GST) activity in gastric tissues. The highest dose of DBAN (120
mg
kg
−1) lowered GSH by 74% and induced a significant elevation of lipid peroxidation products, determined as thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) by 69%. The same dose inhibited the gastric activities of GST, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) by 70, 57 and 23%, respectively. In a time-course study, mice were administered DBAN (60
mg
kg
−1 p.o.) and sacrificed 0.5, 1, 3, 6, 12 and 24
h after treatment. GSH was dramatically depleted at 0.5, 1, 3 and 6
h (45, 38, 39 and 49% of control, respectively) and remained significantly low at 12 and 24
h. Also, DBAN caused an accumulation of TBARS in gastric tissues starting from 3
h and was maximum at 6
h (133% of the control). The enzymatic activities of GST and SOD were maximally inhibited by DBAN treatment at 0.5
h (32% for GST and 37% for SOD of the respective control). The activities of both enzymes returned to control values at 24
h. CAT activity was not affected by DBAN administration at all. Pretreatment of another group of mice with melatonin (10
mg
kg
−1 per day p.o. 12 days) before administration of DBAN (60
mg
kg
−1 p.o.) completely mitigated the aforementioned parameters. In conclusion, the present study indicates that DBAN induces a marked oxidative stress in mouse stomach as evidenced by GSH depletion, TBARS accumulation and GST, SOD and CAT inhibition. Melatonin could mitigate DBAN-induced oxidative stress in mouse stomach as it did almost normalize both the enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidant parameters.