Molecular basis of superoxide dismutase alterations in spirometry proven bronchial asthma

Objective: to study alterations in superoxide dismutase at molecular level in spirometry-proven bronchial asthma. methods: this pilot study was conducted at baqai medical university hospital,karachi,from june to december 2013,and comprised spirometry-proven asthmatics. the allele frequencies of missense polymorphisms of the exonintron of a superoxide dismutase,copper-zinc superoxide dismutase were included in the analysis and compared with their age- and gender-matched healthy controls. results: of the 45 participants,30(66.7%) were cases and 15(33.3%) were controls. the mean age of cases and controls was 37.77±11.95 and 37.27±11.81 years,respectively. the case population showed significant mean baseline and predicted spirometric values (p<0.05). the mean serum superoxide oxide dismutase in cases and controls was 62.53± 15.23 and 55.65± 15.87,respectively. the superoxide dismutase genetic variants studied for the intronic polymorphism in copper-zinc superoxide dismutase showed increased risk of asthma compared with non-asthmatic controls. conclusion: levels of serum superoxide dismutase were elevated with concomitant amplification of copper-zinc superoxide dismutase gene. © 2017,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.