Evaluation of different methods used to measure malonyldialdehyde in human erythrocytes

Malonyldialdehyde (MDA), a secondary product of lipid peroxidation is widely used as an indicator of lipid peroxidation. Eight of the most frequently used methods for measuring MDA have been evaluated with regard to their sensitivity and reproducibility. The sensitivity of these methods for pure MDA solution was in the order: Satoh's > Stocks and Dormandy's >> Buege and Aust's > Dresel's >> Slater's > Yoshioka's et al. > Yagi's > Jain's method. Whereas the sensitivity of the first four methods for erythrocyte MDA was in the order: Stocks and Dormandy's >> Buege and Aust's > Satoh's > Dresel's method. The reproducibility (expressed as coefficient of variation) of these four methods for erythrocyte MDA were: 3.5%, 17.9%, 31.5% and 16.1%, respectively. These results indicate that Stocks and Dormandy's method has the highest sensitivity and an excellent reproducibility for erythrocyte MDA. Also, it was found to be simple and many samples can be treated in a relatively short time. When standard MDA (0.1-15 nmol/ml) was incubated with erythrocytes, the percentage recovery of MDA (using Stocks and Dormandy's method) has ranged from 50-85%. This result indicates that a considerable amount of MDA formed in erythrocytes probably reacts with other cell components and becomes undetectable. Despite this, the determination of MDA level remains a useful indicator of lipid peroxidation and correlates well with the degree of oxidative stress.