Oxidative stress in prehypertension: rationale for antioxidant clinical trials

Prehypertension has been recently described as an independent category of blood pressure. Mounting evidence suggests that blood pressure in the prehypertensive range is associated with an increased risk of developing hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Several reports have assigned a critical role for oxidative stress in these disease processes. This review focuses on the clinical and experimental studies done in prehypertension and hypertension within the context of oxidative stress. This article also provides insights into why diverse therapeutic interventions, which have in common the ability to reduce oxidative stress, can impede or delay the onset of hypertension in prehypertension subjects.