Role of Antioxidants in Pathophysiology Ahmad Rizwan*, Wani Aadil*, Ahsan Haseeb**,1 *Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, SBS Post-Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences and Research, Dehradun, India **Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi-110025 1Corresponding Author E-mail: drhahsan@gmail.com
Online published on 27 March, 2014. Abstract To counter the harmful effects of reactive species, antioxidant defencemechanism operates to detoxify or scavenge the reactive species. Antioxidants are able to neutralize free radical and render them harmless. It has been suggested that the extent of damage caused by the free radical might be modified by three dietary intervention strategies: (a) caloric restriction and thus a depression in free radicals arising due to normal metabolism; (b) minimizing the intake of food substance that increase the free radicals, such as polyunsaturated fatty acids; (c) supplementation with one or more antioxidants in diet. A wide array of enzymatic antioxidants defence exists, that include superoxide dismutase, glutathione reductase, catalase etc. The interrelationship between both the activity and the intracellular levels of these substances protect them from toxicity. Top Keywords Free radicals, superoxide dismutase, catalase, free radicals, reactive oxygen species, natural antioxidants, synthetic antioxidants. Top |