Oxygen Radicals and Human Disease

doi:10.1059/0003-4819-107-4-526

Oxygen Radicals and Human Disease

CARROLL E. CROSS, M.D.;
BARRY HALLIWELL, D. Sc.;
EDWARD T. BORISH, Ph.D.;
WILLIAM A. PRYOR, Ph.D.;
BRUCE N. AMES, Ph.D.;
ROBERT L. SAUL, Ph.D.;
JOE M. McCORD, Ph.D.; and
DENHAM HARMAN, M.D., Ph.D.

Davis and Berkeley, California; London, England; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Mobile, Alabama; and Omaha, Nebraska

Abstract

Toxic oxygen free radicals have been implicated as important pathologic mediators in many clinical disorders. We discuss the chemistry of oxygen radical production and the roles of iron and of various antioxidants as well as the diseases that have received active attention in oxyradical research. Particular attention is focused on cigarette smoke oxidants, ischemia-reperfusion-induced radical production, carcinogenesis, and aging. Such research may well provide a firm foundation for therapeutic breakthroughs.

Article and Author Information

▸An edited and updated summary of an Interdepartmental Dean's Conference held 18 June 1986 and arranged by the Department of Medicine of the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine at the Veterans Administration Medical Center, Martinez, California. Michael C. Geokas, MD., Ph.D., is the permanent chairman and the organizer of these conferences.
▸Authors who wish to cite a section of the conference and specifically indicate its author can use this example for the form of reference:

HALLIWELL B. Oxygen radicals and metal ions: potential antioxidant intervention strategies, pp 526-30. In: CROSS CE, moderator. Oxygen radicals and human disease. Ann Intern Med. 1987;107:526-45.
Dr. Halliwell thanks the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council, Wellcome Trust, and CIBA-Geigy Pharmaceuticals for research support. Dr. Halliwell is also a Lister Institute Research Fellow.
Dr. Pryor's work was supported in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health and a contract from the National Foundation for Cancer Research.
Dr. Ames's and Dr. Saul's section has been adapted in part from Ames and Saul (181), and the work was supported by Department of Energy Contract DE-AS03-76EV70156, a contract from the National Foundation for Cancer Research, by National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator grant CA39910, and by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center grant ES01896. Dr. Saul was supported by an American Heart Association, California Affiliate, postdoctoral fellowship.
▸Requests for reprints should be addressed to Carroll E. Cross, M.D.; University of California, Davis, Medical Center, Pulmonary-Critical Care Division, 4301 "X" Street-Professional Building; Sacramento, CA 95817.