Free radicals and aging: Birkhäuser Verlag, 437 + xi pgs., 1992., Price $164.50

Abstract

I: The Intrinsic Aging Process.- Theoretical Considerations.- Free radical theory of aging: History.- Free radical theory of aging: View against the reliability theory.- The rate of DNA damage and aging.- Genetic stability and oxidative stress: Common mechanisms in aging and cancer.- Oxygen-induced mitochondrial damage and aging.- Biochemical Markers of Aging.- Instabilities of metabolic regulations in aging.- Protein modification in aging.- Mitochondrial production of oxygen free radicals in the heart muscle during the life span of the rat: Peak at middle age.- Lipofuscinogenesis in a model system of cultured cardiac myocytes.- Cellular clones and transgenic mice overexpressing copper-zinc superoxide dismutase: Models for the study of free radical metabolism and aging.- The importance of antioxidant enzymes in cellular aging and degeneration.- Relationship between antioxidants, lipid peroxidation and aging.- The metabolism of 4-hydroxynonenal, a lipid peroxidation product, is dependent on tumor age in Ehrlich mouse ascites cells.- Effect of aging on glutathione metabolism. Protection by antioxidants.- II. Age-Related Diseases.- Cardiovascular System.- Inhibition of LDL oxidation by antioxidants.- Desialylated low density lipoproteins and atherosclerosis.- Molecular basis of ?-tocopherol inhibition of smooth muscle cell proliferation in vitro.- Brain.- Oxidation damage in Alzheimer's dementia, and the potential etiopathogenic role of aluminosilicates, microglia and micronutrient interactions.- The role of alterations in free radical metabolism in mediating cognitive impairments in Down's syndrome.- Free radicals and neurotransmitters in gerbii brain. Influence of age and ischemia reperfusion insult.- Free radicals, lipid peroxidation, SOD activity, neurotransmitters and choline acetyltransferase activity in the aged rat brain.- Evidence for drug metabolism as a source of reactive species in the brain.- Cancer.- Anticarcinogenic activities of carotenoids in animals and cellular systems.- Aging and cancer: Plasma antioxidants and lipid peroxidation in young and aged breast cancer patients.- DNA damage in mammalian cell lines with different antioxidant levels and DNA repair capacities.- Variable ?-tocopherol stimulation and protection of glutathione peroxidase activity and non-transformed and transformed fibroblasts.- Assessing and counteracting the prooxidant effects of anticancer drugs.- Eye Disease.- Effect of photooxidation on the eye lens and role of nutrients in delaying cataract.- Carotenoids in the retina - A review of their possible role in preventing or limiting damage caused by light and oxygen.- Oxidative stress in diabetic retina.- Cartilage, Collagen and Skin.- Active oxygen species, articular inflammation and cartilage damage.- Oxidative damage to collagen.- Free radicals and aging of the skin.- Diabetes, Gastrointestinal Tract.- Modulators of free radical activity in diabetes mellitus: Role of ascorbic acid.- Possible role of free radicals in the chronic inflammation of the gut.- III. Epidemiologic Studies, Nutrition and Antioxidant Supplementation.- Age-related variations of enzymatic defenses against free radicals and peroxidates.- Antioxidant status (selenium, vitamins A and E) and aging.- Inverse correlation between essential antioxidants in plasma and subsequent risk to develop cancer, ischemic heart disease and stroke respectively: 12-year follow-up of the Prospective Basel Study.- Vitamin E requirement in relation to dietary fish oil and oxidative stress in elderly.- Vitamin C and vitamin E - synergistic interactions in vivo?.- The threshold of age in exercise and antioxidants action.- Antioxidant therapy in the aging process.- Acknowledgements.