Balanced oxidative stress index in spite of decreased uric acid levels in multiple sclerosis patients

As anti-oxidative therapies come into consideration, finding feasible markers of oxidative stress becomes mandatory. We here in this study investigated the levels of major internal antioxidant uric acid (UA), oxidative stress parameters total antioxidant status (TAS), total oxidative status (TOS) in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients compared to controls. Thirty-five stable relapse remitting MS patients (15 males and 20 females; mean age 38 ± 11 years) and thirty-five age-sex matched healthy controls (13 males and 22 females; mean age 38 ± 10 years) were included in this study. All patients were diagnosed with MS according to the criteria of McDonald. Serum UA levels were significantly lower in the MS group (p = 0.03). When MS patients were sub-classified according to gender, female patients showed lower UA levels compared to male patients (p = 0.01). We did not find statistically significant differences in TAS and TOS between patients and controls. Serum UA correlated well with serum TAS as expected. However the correlation was more powerful in MS group (p < 0.0001 in MS group versus p = 0.02 in controls). Interpreting sole measurements of oxidative stress parameters may be deceptive as their values depend on many factors including serum levels of each other. We believe in the superiority of using TAS and TOS as markers of oxidative stress in MS patients as they inform about totals, independent of levels of individual parameters.