Journal
REDOX BIOLOGY
Volume 4, Issue -, Pages 272-278Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.redox.2014.12.017
Keywords
beta-Carotene; Vitamin E; Risk benefit analysis; Glutathione-S-transferase; DNA damage
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Funding
- Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) [V/090143/1]
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Antioxidants are vital for aerobic life, and for decades the expectations of antioxidants as health promoting agents were very high. However, relatively recent meta analyses of clinical studies show that supplementation of antioxidants does not result in the presumed health benefit, but is associated with increased mortality. The dilemma that still needs to be solved is: what are antioxidants in the end, healthy or toxic? We have evaluated this dilemma by examining the presumed health effects of two individual antioxidants with opposite images i.e. the poisonous beta-carotene and the wholesome vitamin E and focused on one aspect., namely their role in inducing BPDE-DNA adducts. It appears that both antioxidants promote DNA adduct formation indirectly by inhibition of the protective enzyme glutathione-S-Lransferase pi (GST pi). Despite their opposite image, both antioxidants display a similar type of toxicity. It is concluded that, in the appreciation of antioxidants, first their benefits should be identified and substantiated by elucidating their molecular mechanism. Subsequently, the risks should be identified including the molecular mechanism. The optimal benefit risk ratio has to be determined for each antioxidant and each individual separately, also considering the close. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
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