Oxidative stress in children with endemic skeletal fluorosis

In the village of Kheru Nayak Thanda in the Gulbarga district of Karnataka, India, 18 children aged 3 to 10 years with endemic skeletal fluorosis were shown to have oxidative stress as evidenced by elevated levels of malondialdehyde in their red blood cells, indicating increased lipid peroxidation. Significant alterations of antioxidant systems in the blood were confirmed by decreased levels of glutathione and uric acid together with an increase in the activity of glutathione peroxidase as well as the level of ascorbic acid along with a slight decrease in the activity of superoxide dismutase.