Superoxide Dismutase Assay

Superoxide is formed as a side product of a number of redox enzymes, such as mitochondrial complex I and complex II during respiration and NADPH oxidase as a part of the immune system. Superoxide is toxic due to its high reactivity and the level of superoxide must be controlled in living organisms. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is an important antioxidative enzyme that catalyzes the dismutation, or removal, of superoxide into hydrogen peroxide and molecular oxygen. SODs are important because they are an organism’s first defense against harmful superoxide anions. AkrivisBio’s SOD Activity Assay provides a simple, quick and quantitative method to measure SOD activity in samples. In this assay, superoxide produced by the action of xanthine oxidase reduces WST from a nearly colorless tetrazolium to a highly colored formazan, which can be detected by absorbance at 450 nm. Superoxide is scavenged in an amount proportional to the SOD activity present in samples. Thus, greater the activity of SOD in samples, lesser is the formation of the colored formazan dye.