Equieffective protection by human and bovine SOD against renal reperfusion damage in rats.

Both hum-SOD and bov-SOD improved the impaired renal function during kidney reperfusion. In the experiments with a 60-min occlusion period the effects of bov-SOD tended to be more pronounced than the effects of hum-SOD, whereas after a 30-min occlusion period the improvement of renal function by hum-SOD was more striking. In essence, therefore, hum-SOD proved to be equipotent to bov-SOD. The apoenzyme (Apo-SOD), lacking the active Cu moiety, virtually did not improve the renal function impairment. Thus, the protective effects of hum-SOD and bov-SOD must be ascribed to the enzymatic function of these proteins.