Modern approaches to oxidative stress estimation, or how to measure the immeasurable

Abstract

The concept of oxidative stress remains attractive to researchers combining the chemical nature of activated oxygen metabolites (AOM] and antioxidants, physical and biochemical mechanisms of action, including conditional simplicity of their versatility as redox regulators, with the original meaning of the word "stress" as Selye's general adaptation syndrome. Attempts to classify the oxidative stress on the basis of its intensity and dynamics were made. The main components and driving forces of oxidative stress are pro-oxidants and antioxidants in determining that there is also a mass of inconsistencies. The main components and driving forces of oxidative stress are pro-oxidants and antioxidants in determining that there is also a mass of inconsistencies. The article discusses the basic concepts of direct relevance to the concept of oxidative stress. Existing approaches in its analysis are analyzed and it is noted that oxidative stress per se cannot be "measured". Instead, using a variety of methods, one can assess: 1] the severity and/or the stationary concentration of various types of reactive oxygen species; 2] oxidative damage of biomolecules; 3] antioxidant content/ activity, - and to apply a particular combination of parameters in order to characterize the oxidative stress intensity. The main methods, recently used for the registration of oxidative stress components, are outlined.

Keywords

• antioxidants
• reactive oxygen species
• oxidative stress
• analysis