Aging and oxidative stress.

The scientific establishment has been discussing the relationship between aging and oxidative stress for quite some time now. While we are still far from a general agreement about this subject, there is an impressive amount of data collected that can be used to draw a compelling picture of the events that take place during the human aging process and their correlation with the oxidant status of the organism. In this review, we bring forth the results of some key studies that can help to elucidate the aging-oxidative stress puzzle, as well as to explain which are the fundamental events in this interplay and why their causal relationships remain so elusive.

Functional activity of blood polymorphonuclear leukocytes as an oxidative stress biomarker in human subjects.

In the present work, we studied the role of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) in aged individuals and coronary heart disease (CHD)-bearing patients, two physiopathological processes associated with overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The effects of antioxidant supplementation on the functional activity of PMN from CHD patients were also determined. The function of PMNs was evaluated by measuring of phagocytosis, killing activity, and ROS production.

Antioxidant therapy in the aging process.

A total of 1,265 patients with age-related diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, vascular disease and hypertension as well as 1,100 persons in diminished health without apparent disease, were treated with the metal chelator EDTA and antioxidants such as vitamin C, E, beta-carotene, selenium, zinc and chromium. Good results were observed in the majority of patients. This is encouraging for the initiation of controlled clinical trials.