Study on the redox biology of health and disease has come of age. Redox imbalance also defined as redox stress constitutes one of the main cellular lesion associated with many types of pathologies including cardiometabolic, neurodegenerative, oncological, rheumatic and autoimmune diseases. Reactive species (either centered on oxygen or on nitrogen) can induce many damaging cellular processes, such as DNA oxidative lesions and loss of membrane integrity due to lipid peroxidation. Thus the evaluation of the redox imbalance of biological samples is extremely important in clinical practice as well as in research settings. This may constitute an important tool to evaluate the level of cellular lesions associated with specific pathological mechanisms, or the response to pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatment. The present review focuses on the molecular signatures of redox imbalance in various diseased processes.
Adipobiology 2013; 5: 33-37.