[Free radicals and eye inflammations]

Free radicals (FR), mainly those oxygen derived (FRO) are considered to be inflammation's mediators. Produced either by photochemical reactions or by synthesis into active phagocytic cells (in the cellular time of inflammation), FRO can determine an inflammatory reaction or they can augment a pre-existed one. These phenomena are produced by synthesis of inflammation's mediators as: prostaglandines, prostaciclines, thromboxane and leucotrienes starting from arachidonic acid, by the generation of some compounds with chemotactic properties and by the activation of phagocytic cells, by the augmentation of the proteolytic activity due to natural protease inhibitors inactivation and, last but not least, by the directly destructive action against different tissue compounds. In the first part of this lecture I presented general data about FR, inflammation, photosensitive agents and radical reactions. In the second part, I presented the pathogenic relation between FR and ocular inflammations from two different point of view: that of inflammation generation by FR, and that of FR generation during a preexistent inflammation.