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Free radicals are chemical species possessing an unpaired electron that can be considered as fragments of molecules and which are generally very reactive. They are produced continuously in cells either as accidental by-products of metabolism or deliberately during, for example, phagocytosis. The most important reactants in free radical biochemistry in aerobic cells are oxygen and its radical derivatives (superoxide and hydroxyl radical), hydrogen peroxide and transition metals. Cells have developed a comprehensive array of antioxidant defences to prevent free radical formation or limit their damaging effects. These include enzymes to decompose peroxides, proteins to sequester transition metals and a range of compounds to 'scavenge' free radicals. Reactive free radicals formed within cells can oxidise biomolecules and lead to cell death and tissue injury. Establishing the involvement of free radicals in the pathogenesis of a disease is extremely difficult due to the short lifetimes of these species.

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1. Methods using t.l.c. and high-pressure liquid chromatography (h.p.l.c.) have been used to separate the complex variety of substances possessing a carbonyl function that are produced during lipid peroxidation. 2. The major type of lipid peroxidation studied was the ADP-Fe2+-stimulated peroxidation of rat liver microsomal phospholipids. Preliminary separation of the polar and non-polar products was achieved by t.l.c.: further separation and identification of individual components was performed by h.p.l.c. Estimations were performed on microsomal pellets and the supernatant mixture after incubation of microsomes for 30 min at 37 degrees C. 3. The polar fraction was larger than the non-polar fraction when expressed as nmol of carbonyl groups/g of liver. In the non-polar supernatant fraction the major contributors were n-alkanals (31% of the total), alpha-dicarbonyl compounds (22%) and 4-hydroxyalkenals (37%) with the extraction method used. 4. Major individual contributors to the non-polar fraction were found to be propanal, 4-hydroxynonenal, hexanal and oct-2-enal. Other components identified include butanal, pent-2-enal, hex-2-enal, hept-2-enal, 4-hydroxyoctenal and 4-hydroxyundecenal. The polar carbonyl fraction was less complex than the non-polar fraction, although the identities of the individual components have not yet been established. 5. Since these carbonyl compounds do not react significantly in the thiobarbituric acid reaction, which largely demonstrates the presence of malonaldehyde, it is concluded that considerable amounts of biologically reactive carbonyl derivatives are released in lipid peroxidation and yet may not be picked up by the thiobarbituric acid reaction.

Carbonyl products were separated and identified in suspensions of rat liver microsomal fractions and in isolated hepatocytes, after stimulation of lipid peroxidation by incubation with the pro-oxidants CCl4 and ADP-iron. The carbonyl products were allowed to react with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine, and the derivatives were extracted and separated by t.l.c. into three zones of non-polar materials, and one fraction of polar derivatives that remained at the origin. Separation of the individual non-polar hydrazones in each zone by h.p.l.c. demonstrated that zone I prepared from microsomal fraction or hepatocytes incubated with CCl4 or ADP-iron contained mainly 4-hydroxyhex-2-enal, 4-hydroxynon-2-enal and 4-hydroxynona-2,5-dienal. Zone III consisted mainly of the alkanals propanal, pentanal and hexanal, the 2-alkenals propenal, pent-2-enal, hex-2-enal, hept-2-enal, oct-2-enal and non-2-enal, the ketones butanone, pentan-2-one and pentan-3-one, and deca-2,4-dienal. Incubation of a microsomal fraction with ADP-iron was much more effective in producing malonaldehyde and other carbonyl products than an incubation with CCl4. Despite such quantitative differences, there were no obvious qualitative differences in the h.p.l.c. spectra obtained from zones I and III. However, the stoichiometric evaluation of fatty acid loss and the production of malonaldehyde and other carbonyls suggests that the pathways of lipid peroxidation triggered by CCl4 and ADP-iron are different. The accumulation of carbonyl products of lipid peroxidation in isolated hepatocytes is strongly affected by their metabolism; in particular, 4-hydroxyalkenals were found to be metabolized very rapidly. Nonetheless, both CCl4 and ADP-iron produced stimulation in the production of malonaldehyde and non-polar carbonyl production. After incubation of rat hepatocytes with CCl4 or ADP-iron it was found that approx. 50% of the total amount of non-polar carbonyls produced during incubation escaped into the external medium. This was not leakage from dead cells, as 90-95% of the hepatocytes had retained their integrity at the end of the incubation. Release of carbonyl products from cells stimulated to undergo lipid peroxidation may be a mechanism for spreading an initial intracellular disturbance to affect critical targets outside the parent cell.

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The increasing interest in the role of free radicals in the pathogenesis of human disease has led to an increased need for techniques to measure free radicals and their reactions in vivo and, most importantly, in the clinical situation. Free radicals are extremely reactive and thus short lived. Consequently, free radicals are not amenable to direct assay and free radical activity is usually assessed by indirect methods such as measurement of the various end products of reactions with lipids, proteins and DNA. A vast array of analytical techniques has been developed to measure these end products though not all of them are applicable to the clinical situation where the only samples normally available are blood, urine and expired breath. Lipid peroxidation is the most intensively studied process and provides a number of possibilities for assays. Protein and nucleic acid oxidation are attracting increasing attention at the present time. The techniques currently available, however, are limited to semi-quantitative assays of damage to broad classes of biomolecules and there is an urgent need for more specific and informative methods.

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