Effects of oxidants and antioxidants evaluated using parinaric acid as a sensitive probe for oxidative stress

Parinaric acid (PnA) is a fluorescent polyunsaturated fatty acid which can be used as a probe to study lipid peroxidation processes. The basic methodology is simple and sensitive, and offers a direct 'view' of the oxidative decay of a fatty acid and the effects of prooxidant and antioxidant factors. A distinctive feature of the PnA assay is that it does not measure a lipid peroxidation end product, but monitors lipid oxidative stress in its initial stages. This review highlights the methodological characteristics of the PnA assay, and describes the various applications in which PnA and PnA derivatives have yielded useful information. These applications range from oxidant and antioxidant studies in lipid model systems to comparative studies of oxidation processes in normal and pathological red blood cells, and also include studies of lipoprotein oxidation.