Metabolism of polyamines and oxidative stress in the brain of cholestatic rats.

In a recently published article in "Amino Acids" it was shown that obstructive jaundice of 9 days' duration in rats induces significant alterations of polyamines' metabolism in the brain, which might play an important pathogenetic role in cholestatic brain injury. The authors proposed that alterations of polyamines in cholestatic brain might induce neuronal toxicity through a mechanism that implicates the production of reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress, although this parameter was not evaluated in their study. This hypothesis is supported by our recent findings on brain oxidative status in rats with obstructive jaundice of 10 days' duration. Potential interrelations of the two studies' findings are discussed in this commentary.