Publication Date:
1984-05-11
Description:
The mechanism of lipid peroxidation and the manner in which antioxidants function is reviewed. beta-Carotene is a purported anticancer agent, which is believed by some to have antioxidant action of a radical-trapping type. However, definitive experimental support for such action has been lacking. New experiments in vitro show that beta-carotene belongs to a previously unknown class of biological antioxidants. Specifically, it exhibits good radical-trapping antioxidant behavior only at partial pressures of oxygen significantly less than 150 torr, the pressure of oxygen in normal air. Such low oxygen partial pressures are found in most tissues under physiological conditions. At higher oxygen pressures, beta-carotene loses its antioxidant activity and shows an autocatalytic, prooxidant effect, particularly at relatively high concentrations. Similar oxygen-pressure-dependent behavior may be shown by other compounds containing many conjugated double bonds.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Burton, G W -- Ingold, K U -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1984 May 11;224(4649):569-73.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6710156" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Antioxidants/*metabolism
;
Carotenoids/*metabolism
;
Chemical Phenomena
;
Chemistry
;
Free Radicals
;
Humans
;
Linoleic Acids/metabolism
;
*Lipid Metabolism
;
Oxidation-Reduction
;
Oxygen/metabolism
;
Partial Pressure
;
Peroxides/metabolism
;
Tetrahydronaphthalenes/metabolism
;
beta Carotene
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
