[Antioxidant vitamins - importance for cardiopulmonary prophylaxis. Part II. Antioxidant food supplies - vitamin C and beta-carotene; current experience in antioxidant vitamin usage].

The faith that an oxidizing of LDL is necessary for he foam cell formation is basically for the so called oxidative hypothesis of atherosclerosis. The role of LDL-oxidation for the atherosclerotic plaque formation, as well as its association with inflammatory processes in the vascular wall, are well established. The important conclusion of this hypothesis is the possible role of the antioxidants attenuating atherosclerotic mechanisms. The advances in studying the principal antioxidant vitamins E, C and beta-carotene effects, revealed a great part of their molecular mechanisms, which are not necessarily antioxidative. The important aspects of the cooperative antioxidant action are revealed too, including the so called tocopherol-mediated peroxidation, suggesting the need for the co-antioxidants for effective antioxidant defense. In the recent years many vitamin antioxidant supplementations are used. The epidemiological results of such supplementation do not always reveal the same beneficial effects as expected theoretically or based on the observations made with a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. The present paper generalizes the thought concerning the impact of oxidized LDL in atherosclerosis, as well as mechanisms of action and pharmacokinetiks of the most widely used antioxidant vitamins--E, C and beta-carotene, and the perspectives of their usage in cardiovascular prophylaxy bazed upon the recent experience in antioxidant vitamin supplementation.