Determination of superoxide dismutase in erythrocytes by a chemiluminescent assay

A highly rapid chemiluminescent assay for the determination of superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in erythrocytes was developed. The inhibition of the luminescent emission caused by the decrease of generated superoxide anions was measured. The aim of this work was to verify the application of a non amplified luminol SOD luminescent assay (CLM) in erythrocytes starting from an amplified method already used for the determination of XOD activity in milk (CLME). Both the assays had a detection limit of 3×10−2±7×10−3 U/ml of SOD at 2σ level, and a linear range of activity from 5.2 to 0.03 U/ml of SOD. The imprecision of assays (repeatability) presented coefficients of variations ranging from 3.1 to 7.9% for the CLME method and from 0.6 to 17.7% for CLM method. Both luminescent techniques were compared using a spectrophotometric kit, that had a detection limit of 0.3 U/ml, and showed good agreement.