Characterization of blood redox status of early and mid-late lactating dairy cows

The effect of the stage of lactation on blood redox homeostasis of bovine and buffalo cows was evaluated.The investigation was carried out on early lactating and mid-late lactating cows, reared in a farm locatedin Campania (southern Italy). Plasma concentration of ?-tocopherol and ascorbate, the total antioxidant capacity(TAC), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and superoxide dismutase activities were higher (P < 0.01) in mid-late lactatingcows, thus suggesting a higher consumption of antioxidants during early lactation. Plasma concentration ofprotein-bound carbonyls (PC) and nitrotyrosine (N-Tyr), and the level of lipid hydroperoxides (LPO) were higher(P < 0.01) in early lactating cows, thus suggesting that lipid peroxidation and peroxynitrite production are crucialin determining oxidative modifications in plasma. TAC was positively correlated with ascorbate concentration(P < 0.03), and negatively correlated with PC concentration (P < 0.002), and ascorbate was negatively correlatedwith PC (P < 0.03) in mid-late lactating group. These findings demonstrate that circulating ascorbate plays a majorrole in preventing protein modifications induced by carbonyls, and that ascorbate scavenging effect is impairedduring early lactation. We calculated a protein oxidative stress index as the ratio (PC + N-Tyr)/TAC multipliedby 100, and we found that this parameter was higher (P < 0.0001) in early lactating cows. Therefore, it could beuseful for assessing the extent of protein oxidative damage in relation to the whole antioxidant status. Further,we suggest that the LPO/GPx ratio multiplied by 100 might be used as lipid oxidative stress index in lactatingcows. This index was higher (P < 0.0001) in early lactating cows, and might represent a standard parameter forevaluating the lipid damage depending on a deficiency of the enzymatic antioxidant defence. These parametersare proposed for a possible effective description of physiological changes associated with lactation.