Niki E, Yamamoto Y, Komuro E, Sato K
Department of Reaction Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo, Japan.
Am J Clin Nutr. 1991 Jan;53(1 Suppl):201S-205S. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/53.1.201S.
The influence of free radical-mediated oxidations is amplified because it proceeds by a chain mechanism, ie, only one radical can initiate chain reaction which may propagate over and over again. It was found that the in vitro oxidations of erythrocyte membranes proceed by a chain mechanism with a long kinetic chain length. Thus, the role of chain-breaking antioxidants is quite important, since they scavenge chain-carrying radicals to break a chain reaction. In fact, it has been found experimentally that vitamin E, a lipophilic chain-breaking antioxidant present within the membranes, suppresses the oxidative damage of the membranes more efficiently than water-soluble chain-breaking antioxidants such as vitamin C, which scavenges aqueous radicals but can not scavenge chain-carrying radicals within the membranes.
