Potentiometry as a Tool for Monitoring of Antioxidant Activity and Oxidative Stress Estimation in Medicine

The complexity of biological objects and the rapid change in their composition after sampling, the variety of compounds of different chemical nature, possessing oxidative and antioxidant properties, make the task of its estimating extremely nontrivial and important for food, nutrients and human health characterization. The paper discusses the use of potentiometry in determining integral antioxidant/oxidant activity mainly of biological fluids and human skin. The source of information is the electrode potential shift that occurs when the analyzed object is inserted in the solution of the mediator system or when the mediator system is exposed to human skin. The experimental approaches, protocols, calculations are described. A number of examples of antioxidant activity and oxidative stress estimation in medicine are presented. The works show lower levels of antioxidant activity (AOA) of plasma and blood serum in patients with cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and malignant neoplasms as compared with the healthy volunteers. It was found out that antioxidant activity of fertile men semen is higher than AOA of infertile patients. Using the method discussed have shown that in some infertile male patients antioxidant activity of semen has been accompanied by oxidant activity. It has been found, that antioxidant activity of skin increases after intake of ascorbic acid and vitamin-enriched juices. The described approach holds considerable promise for monitoring oxidative stress of the whole organism and its systems, and for selecting effective and safe therapy. Thus, it opens up new opportunities in expanding the use of analytical chemistry in such an important field as medicine.