Shift of Prooxidant–Antioxidant Balance in Laboratory Animals at Five Times Higher Deuterium Content in Drinking Water

Water containing 750 ppm deuterium was used to simulate the isotopic composition of water in ice caps at the poles of Mars and tested for effect on oxidative processes in the liver and blood of laboratory animals. Prolonged consumption of deuterium-rich water was found to increase the deuterium content in the blood plasma to 487 ppm. Higher antioxidant activity was consequently observed the liver and blood plasma. The effect of a medium containing 487 ppm deuterium on the secondary structure of bovine serum albumin (BSA) was additionally studied in a model experiment. Lower intensities were observed in circular dichroism (CD) and intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence spectra, indicating that conformational changes arose in albumin structure when the deuterium content increased in the incubation medium. The study provides a basis for further research of how drinking water with a higher deuterium content (700–1000 ppm) affects living systems, to understand the possibility of life on Mars.