Full Length Research Paper

Ozone autohaemotherapy protects against ketamine hydrochloride^® induced liver and muscle damage in baboons

Liezl Gibhard¹*, Marietjie Meyer² and Herculaas F. Kotzé¹

[1]School for Chemistry and Physical Science, North-West University, Private Bag X6001, Potchefstroom, 2520, South-Africa.

²AMPATH, Mooimed Private Hospital, Albert Luthuli Street, Potchefstroom, 2520, South Africa.

*Corresponding author.  E-mail: BCHLG@puknet.puk.ac.za. Tel: +2718 299 4196. Fax: +2718 299 2316.

Abbreviations: O₃-AHT, Ozone autoheamotherapy; O₂-AHT, oxygen autoheamotherapy; ROS, reactive oxygen species; LOP, lipid oxidation products; NADHP, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate; NADH, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (reduced form); NAD⁺, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (oxidized form); ALT, alanine aminotransferase; AST, aspartate aminotransferase; CK, creatine kinase; MD, malate dehydrogenase; LD, lactate dehydrogenase.

Accepted 5 September, 2008

Ozone is currently under scrutiny because of various claims of beneficial effect in disease.  In order to shed some light on this we assessed the acute and chronic effect of O₃ autohaemotherapy (AHT) on liver and muscle damage in baboons.  Five percent of the total blood volume of a baboon was treated with O₂ and O₃.  Eleven baboons were acutely treated with an O₂/O₃ gas mixture containing 20, 40 and 80 µg/ml ozone.  Five were treated with pure O₂ and three received no treatment to assess the effect of the ketamine hydrochloride anaesthesia. Blood samples were collected before treatment and after 4, 24 and 48 h. Anaesthesia increased aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and creatine kinase (CK) levels markedly.  O₃-AHT had a protective effect, since enzyme levels were lower.  O₂-AHT had no protective effect on liver and muscle damage. An O₂/O₃ gas mixture containing 40 µg/ml O₃ was used for chronic O₃-AHT (n=6) treatment.  The animals were treated at 0, 24 and 48 h.  Blood was collected before treatment and again after 4, 24, 28, 48, 52, 72 and 96 h. ALT levels increased and remained elevated. AST levels increased during the four hours following each treatment and remained elevated.  CK levels increased markedly during the four hours following treatment, but decreased after treatment was stopped. The magnitude of changes was small and does not support the view that infusion of ozonated of blood is toxic.

Key words:  O₃-AHT, O₂-AHT, liver damage, muscle damage.