Antioxidant mobilization in response to oxidative stress: A dynamic environmental-nutritional interaction

In today's society, human activities and lifestyles generate numerous forms of environmental oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is defined as a process in which the balance between oxidants and antioxidants is shifted toward the oxidant side. This shift can lead to antioxidant depletion and potentially to biological damage if the body has an insufficient reserve to compensate for consumed antioxidants. This report focuses on the observation that oxidative stress resulting from inhalation of oxidant air pollutants mobilized vitamin E to the lung. A review of the literature showed that this mobilization is not limited to the lung; rather, a variety of situations in which oxidative stress occur can mobilize antioxidants, This antioxidant mobilization shows that a high antioxidant capacity in the body must be maintained for it to cope efficiently with environmental oxidative stress. Maintaining a high-antioxidant capacity in the body with the use of dietary supplementation was a convenient and acceptable method by test subjects, human or non-human. One mechanism that might explain the antioxidant mobilization is a dynamic interaction between environment and nutrition. In that mechanism, oxidative stress would alter certain bioactive molecules, followed by activation of signal transduction pathways that in turn would mobilize antioxidants to the target organ of the oxidant attack. Nutrition 2001;17:828-834. (C) Elsevier Science Inc. 2001.