Oxygen radical generation as an index of neurotoxic damage

Biochemical, anatomical, and physiological characteristics of the brain make it especially vulnerable to insult. Specifically, some of these characteristics such as myelin and a high energy requirement provide for the introduction of free radical-induced insult. Recently, the biochemistry of free radicals has received considerable attention. It also has become increasingly suggestive that many drug and chemical-induced toxicities may be evoked via free radicals and oxidative stress. Major points addressed in this work are the regulation of neural-free radical generation by antioxidants and protective enzymes, xenobiotic-induced disruption of cerebral redox status, and specific examples of neurotoxic agent-induced alterations in free radicals as measured by the fluorescent probe dichlorofluorescein. This article considers that free radical mechanisms may contribute significantly to the properties of several diverse neurotoxic agents and proposes that free radicals may be common phenomena of neurotoxicity.