Ozone concentration dependent autohaemotherapy effects on baboon antioxidant capacity and DNA integrity and repair capacity of lymphocytes

Although ozone is widely used as an alternative medicine, its safety and efficiency are met with scepticism. To shed some light on this, we assessed the effect of ozone-autohaemotherapy, using anO2/O3 gas mixture containing three different O3 concentrations (20, 40 and 80 ìg/ml), on the antioxidant status and lymphocyte DNA integrity in baboons. Ultra pure O2 was used as a control because morethan 95% of the O2/O3 gas mixture consisted of oxygen. Five percent of the blood volume of a baboon was withdrawn and treated with O3. Baboons were anesthetized with intramuscular ketamine hydrochloride (±10 mg/kg). Blood was collected before ozone-autohaemotherapy and again 4, 24 and 48 h after treatment. In general, the changes in measurements were concentration dependant. Ozoneautohaemotherapyup regulated the antioxidant capacity as measured by the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity assay. Total glutathione levels decreased after ozone-autohaemotherapy, most likely due to reaction with reactive oxygen species that was quenched by the GSH system. The activityof superoxide dismutase increased after ozone-autohaemotherapy with 20 ìg/ml O3. Ozoneautohaemotherapy caused a slight increase in DNA damage. However, very little DNA damage occurred following treatment with 80 ìg/ml O3, which also caused the highest increase in the antioxidant capacity. DNA repair capacity decreased and thus can have severe long term effects