Isoprostanes as Oxidative Stress Markers
Free radicals represent highly reactive forms that can exist independently only for relatively short intervals of time, but the effects they exert on various biomolecules are associated with almost all diseases in the human organism. Degenerative diseases are a major cause of increased morbidity, and the pathogenetic mechanisms of cell damage, although very different, include the involvement of oxidative stress. Direct analysis of the levels of free radicals in the body is difficult to perform, but the determination of the products of their action on biological molecules is an available possibility to prove the presence of oxidative stress in the body. Isoprostanes are the major product of lipid peroxidation as a result of the action of free radicals. They are stable compounds that are found in all fluids in the body and can provide information about the presence of oxidative stress. Of the currently existing methods foranalysis of isoprostanes, the enzyme-immunochemical ones are the most widely employed. Of the chromatographic methods, the gaschromatographic ones with preliminary derivatization are most often used. The number of liquid chromatographic methods published so far is limited and most of them use highly sensitive analyzers such as QTRAP, QTOF or Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). This provides an opportunity to develop and validate new liquid chromatographic methods for the analysis of 8-isoPGF2-alpha in various biological matrices to be proposed for diagnostics in everyday practice.
