Mitochondria keep cells “healthy” in their environment. In this post, we’ll take a look at a new fluorescent assay for the monitoring of mitophagy, a process aimed at clearing damaged or superfluous mitochondria by autophagy, in mammalian cells.
Measure the anti-oxidative potential of your sample
Fig 1: Oxidative stress and related diseases
Oxidative stress can lead to diverse pathophysiological changes in the body. Neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson and Alzheimer are linked to oxidative stress, as well as several cancers and diseases such as chronic fatigue syndrome, fragile X syndrome, heart and blood vessel disorders, heart attack, heart failure, and atherosclerosis (for an overview see Fig 1). [Read more…]
Measure antioxidative capacities of your samples
Free radicals and Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) are highly reactive molecules generated by normal cellular processes, environmental stress, and UV irradiation. ROS react with numerous cellular components damaging DNA (but also carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids) and cause cellular and tissue injury. Measuring antioxidative capacities of biological fluids, cells, and tissue such active molecules is becoming more and more important in the pharmaceutical industry and in academic laboratories. Let’s focuse here on 2 robust methods.