Abstract

Background: Various experimental, epidemiological, and clinical studies have shown that hyperuricemia is associated with development of hypertension, visceral obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes, kidney diseases, and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events. Whether hyperuricemia is a cause or effect is a debatable subject. Although thepathogenesisofthesediseasesiscomplexandincompletelyunderstood,itisclearthatoxidativestressanddamageto proteins and lipids is common for all of them.
Objective: To determine whether hyperuricemia causes oxidative stress in patients with gout, and to evaluate the effect of allopurinol treatment on oxidative stress after 1 and 3 months in these patients.
Materials and Methods: Patients with newly diagnosed gout (n = 30) and healthy age- and sex-matched volunteers (n = 30) were enrolled in the study. They were treated with 100-mg allopurinol 8 hourly in a day for 3 months. Serum uric acid levels and levels of oxidative stress such as serum malondialdehyde (MDA), erythrocyte catalase (CAT), and erythrocyte superoxide dismutase (SOD) were measured before treatment, and after 1 and 3 months of treatment. Pretreatment levels of all the parameters were compared in both the groups using unpaired t-test. The parameters were also analyzed in test group at 0, 1, and 3 months of treatment using repeated-measures analysis of variance test.
Results:PretreatmentlevelsofserumuricacidandMDAweresignificantlyhigherinpatientsascomparedtocontrolgroup (Po 0.01). They were significantly reduced after 1 (Po 0.05) and 3 months (Po 0.01) of treatment with allopurinol. Pretreatment levels of CATand SOD were significantly lower in patients as compared to control group (Po 0.01); they were increased significantly after 1 (Po 0.01) and 3 months (Po 0.01) of treatment with allopurinol. Conclusion:Fromthisstudy,itcanbesuggestedthathyperuricemiacausesoxidativestressinpatientswithgout.Besides the main benefit of lowering serum uric acid level, allopurinol also decreases oxidative stress in patients with gout.