Research Perspective|Volume 3, Issue 9|pp 906—910

Oxidation as “The Stress of Life”

Nikolay L. Malinin¹, Xiaoxia Z. West, Tatiana V. Byzova

¹Department of Molecular Cardiology, J.J. Jacobs Center for Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA

Received: September 6, 2011Accepted: September 18, 2011Published: September 21, 2011

Copyright: © 2011 Malinin et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Multiple biological consequences of oxidative stress are known to contribute to aging and aging-related pathologies. It was recently shown that (carboxyalkyl)pyrroles (CAPs), the end products of phospholipid oxidation serve as a novel class of endogenous ligands for Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and promote the process of angiogenesis. In this review, we discuss implications of these findings in the context of age-related pathologies, including tumorigenesis. Accumulation of oxidation products in tissues of aging organisms might create conditions for uncontrolled pathological angiogenesis as seen in patients with age related macular degeneration. CAPs and their receptors, TLRs might also promote the progression of atherosclerotic lesions. Importantly, besides their role in a number of pathologies, oxidative products of phospholipids contribute to tissue repair processes thereby antagonizing the destructive effects of oxidation.