[The functional characteristics of the enzymatic antioxidant system in the erythrocytes and neutrophils of the blood of patients with generalized forms of meningococcal infection].

Patients with meningococcal infection, meningitis and with a mixed form of the disease were demonstrated to have unbalance in the redox system of glutathione during the all disease periods till the clinical recovery. Activation of glutathione peroxidases to hydrogen peroxide and tertiary butyl hydroperoxide in erythrocytes was coupled, during the whole disease, with unbalance of the time-course of changes in the interrelated enzymes--superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase to hydrogen peroxide, while in neutrophils, the balance of those enzymes remained unimpaired. Glutathione transferase activity appeared reduced both in erythrocytes and neutrophils. Potential mechanisms by which the redox system of glutathione and superoxide dismutase may be deranged in meningococcal infection are under discussion.