Antiaging Dock: Evaluation of Oxidative Stress

Oxidative stress refers to a situation where the balance of oxidation and reduction in cells is disrupted due to factors such as the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) due to endogenous or exogenous factors, or the breakdown of antioxidant defense mechanisms. However, antioxidant capacity does not simply refer to the ability to directly eliminate ROS and free radicals. It should be evaluated from various angles, including the control of ROS production from neutrophils and macrophages in the body, the suppression of Fenton reactions by chelating transition metals, the suppression of ROS production by maintaining the quality of mitochondria, the maintenance of cell function by stabilizing cell membranes, the impact on the arachidonic acid cascade, the effect on enzyme activity in the NADPH oxidase system and the hypoxanthine–xanthine oxidase system, the indirect ROS production suppression effect via other signal transduction, and the effect of enhancing the expression of antioxidant enzyme genes. However, what is intuitively easy to understand is the evaluation of the direct elimination activity of ROS and free radicals, so the current situation is that the body’s antioxidant capacity also depends solely on the analysis of antioxidant components, as shown below.